The domestic sources of israel’s decision to launch the 1956 sinai campaign

Guy Laron*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

This article examines Israel’s decision to launch the 1956 campaign against Egypt. While the current literature tends to argue that, in 1956, the campaign was a response by Israel to security threats, it is suggested here that, if so, these threats certainly did not predetermine any specific response. Israel could, for example, have responded by adopting a defensive posture. In reality, domestic factors were just as influential as external ones. The most important of these was the severe economic crisis caused by mass immigration to Israel during 1948–1951. This crisis in turn led to the creation in 1953–1956 of awar coalitionwhose three components— David Ben-Gurion (PrimeMinister and Minister of Defence), MAPAI’s party bosses and the army—had different interests but shared the idea of a war against Israel’s Arab neighbours as a way in which each could advance its preferred aims.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)200-218
Number of pages19
JournalBritish Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
Volume42
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 3 Apr 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 British Society for Middle Eastern Studies.

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