The 1973 War and its Consequences

The attack of Syria and Egypt to Israel's positions in the Occupied Territories has shown that even process of anti-tensions cannot prevent the continuation of hostilities in the Middle East. But anti-tensions between the two superpowers could help end the Arab-Israeli conflict. Egypt and Syria were advancing in the Golan and Sinai and they were against the consolidation of the South Front by Israel. On October 21, 1973, at a meeting with Kissinger and Brezhnev in Moscow, they agreed a cease-fire at the Security Council, and UN Security Council Resolution 338 ended the clash. The Soviet Union tried to put pressure on Israel trough agreement with the United States. Establishing peace-keeping forces to prevent conflict was also accepted. At the Geneva Peace Conference, the Soviet government sought to establish a basis for improving relations with Israel, but according to the Soviet authorities, the relationship between Israel and the Arabs was crucial for the resumption of political relations between the two countries. Gradually, non-political flows between Moscow and Tel Aviv expanded.
The largest number of immigrants from the Soviet Union took place in 1973, reaching 35,000 people. Despite the criticisms of the Arabs, the Soviets did not stop this process. However, it did the action in response to Israeli act in the 1967 war. The Lebanese government had the most severe attacks on the Soviet Union in this regard. According to the Lebanese immigrant Jews from the Soviet Union were more dangerous than phantoms from the United States. They accused the Soviets of receiving wheat from the United States in return for sending Jewish specialists to Israel. The government of the Soviet Union affirmed the establishment of a Palestinian state along with a Jewish state. The government of Isaac Rabin in Israel was suspicious of the goals of the Soviet Union and tried to reach a direct agreement with the Egyptian people. In January 1974, their agreement was not challenged by the Soviet Union.
Moscow knew that for balancing Arab-US relations, it needs relationship with Israel. The Israeli prime minister sought to gain better opportunities to increase the Jewish immigration to Israel. In contrary to the efforts of diplomats in the Soviet Union, Israel, relying on US support, refused to allow the continuation of the Soviet political process in the Arab-Israeli negotiations, and tried to keep the issue of Jewish immigration separate from the developments in the region. The development of Egyptian relations with the United States did not provide a good perspective on the future of the Middle East region for the Soviet Union. In 1975, at the Helsinki Summit, the European Convention on Human Rights was adopted by the Soviet Union. This stepped up the Soviet Union's commitment to the rights of the Jews, especially their immigration.
In the autumn of 1972, Senator Henry Jackson threatened that he will pass a law at the US Congress, where economic privileges for the Soviet Union are linked to the problem of the immigration of the Jews. Moscow sought to reduce the pressure and it showed more flexibly on Jewish immigration. But Jackson followed his proposed law. In December 1974, some bottlenecks in economic cooperation were considered for countries that restricted their citizens' immigration. The purpose of this law was to change the behavior of the Soviet Union against the demand for the immigration of the Jews. The Soviet Union accused the US of interfering in its internal affairs. The Israeli government also tried to persuade Soviet leaders not to limit the issue of immigration under the influence of these measures. However, the number of Jewish immigrants declined in 1974 to 75, but in the next years the Soviets began to change it. Leaders of the country continued to rebuild the Geneva Conference and the political settlement of the Palestinian issue. Following the meeting of Yasser Arafat with Brezhnev in April 1975, the attempts have been defeated. The Israelis expressed their opposition by holding a peace conference and Soviet's role in it. Since 1975, steps have been taken to improve relations. The Soviet Union continued to seek a political solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Israel also opposed the deal with Syria, particularly from the United States. Gradually, the Israeli-Soviet common views made the two countries get closer to each other. Both countries were concerned about the US-Syria conflict in Lebanon and were concerned about the effects of Ethiopic developments on strategic access to the Red Sea. At the same time, relations between the Soviet Union and the Palestine Liberation Organization were also expanding. Israel hoped to improve relations with the Soviet Union, co it can improve its relations with the countries of Eastern Europe and reduce its isolation. At the meeting between the Foreign Ministers of the two countries, Igal Allon and Andre Gromyko meet with each other on the outskirts of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September 1975. This meeting happened after two years of intense coldness, but it did not have any results.
Relations between the two countries began to rise in the years 1975-76, and Syria's involvement in Lebanon was accompanied by the reaction of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was worried about its diminution of influence in Syria, while its relations with Egypt were in decline. With the election of Carter as the president of the United States, the country showed that it was ready to be present in Geneva with the Soviet Union. The close interest in the Red Sea for Israel and the Soviet Union strengthened the possibility of resuming the Geneva talks. Both countries were worried about the separatist movements in Eritrea and feared of an Arab-dominated government. The efforts of the Arabs to turn the Red Sea into an Arabian sea increased on these considerations. US-Soviet efforts to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict developed.
The Soviet Union and Israel continued their actions to improve relations. Informal meetings were formed, but during these contacts more differences of opinion and issues were clarified. In March 1976, the Communist Party of Israel was accused of sabotage and its dissolve was suggested, in order to change the Soviet policy towards immigrants. Hebrew University awarded honorary doctorate to Andrei Sakharov, a well-known Soviet dissident. Moscow also reciprocally condemned Israeli military action at Uganda's final airport to save abducted passengers. In 1977, propaganda against Israel and Zionism intensified. The arrest of Anatoly (Nathan) Sharansky, a Jewish dissident in the Soviet Union, faced widespread protests in Israel. In general, relations between the two countries, in contrast to the political propaganda environment, were gradually developing. By the influence of Carter's policies on the intensification of the attack on the policies of the Soviet Union towards the Jews and their migration it became possible for Israel to have better opportunities. In the framework of Democrats' foreign policy, Carter posed the issue of human rights and the policies of the Soviet Union more broadly. Senators and anti-communist representatives in the United States did not want to reconcile with the Kremlin, and they evaluated him as slowdown factor of the Jewish immigration process.