The Decline of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

by Avraham Sela

• ISBN13: 9780791435380
• ISBN10: 0791435385
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2012-02-01
• Publisher: State University of New York Press (SUNY Press)

Summary

The Decline of the Arab-Israeli Conflict addresses the changing political behavior of the regional Arab system in the Palestine conflict, from total enmity to negotiated peace with Israel. This change is explained as a reflection of state formation process and constant thrust of ruling elites to disengage from compelling supra-state commitments stemming from Pan-Arab nationalist ideology and Islamic political culture. The book scrutinizes the role of Arab summit conferences which, since 1964, became the main collective Arab institution for decision making on common core issues -- foremost of which was the conflict with Israel. The summits' main role was to legitimize incremental departure from the overburdening Palestine conflict whose powerful collective symbolism threatened states' autonomy. Summits' consensus sanctioned shifts from hitherto established collective Arab norms toward Israel as well as on inter-Arab relations, in accordance with core actors' interests. The summits offer a view to the Arab regional system's evolution as a negotiated inter-state order based on mutual recognition of sovereign states as opposed to compulsive collectivism in the name of Pan-Arabism. They were, in fact, a manipulation of the regional Arab system by primary participants' coalitions through employment of financial, ideological, and political trade-offs to resolve inter-Arab differences and reach a consensus on redefined collective goals.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
List of Abbreviations	xiii
I. Nation, State, and Regional Conflict
Introduction: Explaining Regional Arab Politics	3	(6)
The Regional Arab System	9	(22)
The Emergence of a Regional Conflict System	31	(26)
II. The Politics of Escalation --- From the ``Arab Cold War'' to the June 1967 War
For the Sake of Palestine: ``Unity of Action''	57	(18)
Collapse of Summitry and the Road to War	75	(22)
III. The Politics of Reappraisal and Adaptation
A Turning Point in Khartoum	97	(14)
The Beleaguered Nasir	111	(22)
The Road to the October War	133	(20)
IV. The Politics of the Peace Process
The Divisive Peace Diplomacy	153	(22)
The Lebanese Civil War	175	(14)
Brokers
Pawns
The Burden of Arab Consensus: Egypt-Israel Peace Accord and Arab Response	189	(32)
V. The Decade of Fragmentation and Disarray
The Arab World in the 1980s: An Overview
The Iraq-Syria Conflict and the Gulf War	221	(26)
Crossroads of the Lebanon War	247	(26)
In Search of Another Peace Process	273	(32)
VI. The Dialectic of Force and Diplomacy Between the Palestinian and Gulf Crises
The Intifada and New Regional Alignment	305	(16)
The Kuwait Crisis and the Peace Process: Toward A New Middle East Order?	321	(20)
Conclusion	341	(10)
Appendices	351	(10)
Notes	361	(46)
Selected Bibliography	407	(6)
Index	413