At the time,
Syria and
Palestinian fedayeen called for a rematch of the
1948 Arab-Israeli War, but other Arab states (most notably
Egypt under
Gamal Abdel Nasser) felt it was not the right moment to strike. Instead, they agreed on the non-military belligerent tactic of diverting water from the
Jordan River so that Israel could not use it. This diversion was called the
1964 Headwater Diversion Plan. It went against the original agreed proposals of the River Jordan by both Israel and the Arabs in the 1955 Unified Johnston Plan, also known as the
Jordan Valley Unified Water Plan. This was one of the factors that later precipitated the
Six-Day War in 1967. The immediate catalyst for the summit was Israel's proposed
diversion of water from
Lake Tiberias. In reaction to Syria's repeated charges of Egyptian reluctance for military confrontation with Israel,
Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918–1970) championed an Arab plan to divert two sources of the
River Jordan, the
Hasbani River and the
Banias. This had been the chosen option out of two proposals of the
1964 Headwater Diversion Plan. On 23 December 1963, he said: In order to confront Israel, which challenged us last week when
its chief-of-staff stood up and said "we shall divert the water against the will of the Arabs and the Arabs can do what they want", a meeting between Arab
Kings and
Heads of State must take place as soon as possible, regardless of the conflicts and differences between them. Those with whom we are in conflict, we are prepared to meet; those with whom we have a quarrel, we are ready, for the sake of Palestine, to sit with. == Participants ==