Nineteen fifty-five marked a turning point in Africa’s involvement in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Prior to that year, the views of the few independent African nations had been completely overshadowed by cold war politics. The Bandung Conference, however, symbolized the emergence of a Third World approach to international problems, and African views on the Arab-Israeli conflict became increasingly important. With the winds of change blowing across the African continent, the two major contenders in the Middle Eastern crisis—Egypt and Israel—began to concentrate on wooing African support for their own positions.