The Yom Kippur war in 1973 ended more as a draw than an Israeli victory. Unlike the war in 1967, Israel suffered heavy losses and although a ceasefire was organised as the Israelis marched on Cairo, it was close-run thing in the early stages.

The fallout from the war also marked a changeover in generations when Yitzhak Rabin succeeded Golda Meir as prime minister in 1974.

The Yom Kippur war did provide the space for the Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, to make peace with Israel. Sadat visited Jerusalem in 1977 and spoke in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. In 1979, Egypt and Israel signed the peace accord, the Camp David agreement. It did not however solve the problem of the Palestinians.

The Labour party continued to decline amidst further splits in 1977. At the 1977 election, Menahem Begin’s Likud emerged as the leading party. Israel had switched for the first time from the Left to the Right.