Nasser, after failing to obtain American arms…

Nasser, after failing to obtain American arms to repel the Israeli attacks, trumps both Israel and his Western adversaries when in October 1955 he signs a security agreement with the Soviet Union and a secret major arms deal with Czechoslovakia that threatens overnight to erase Israel's tenuous margin of military superiority, especially in aircraft.

The way to improved Soviet-­Egyptian relations had been prepared by Nasser's refusal to join the Baghdad Pact, which had been formed earlier that year to counter the threat of Soviet expansion.

Nasser also announces a blockade of the Strait of Tiran, ...