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Editor's Introduction
It would be difficult to overstate the importance to the United States of the off-and-on efforts to advance peace initiatives between Israel and Palestine. Without attempting to go into detail here, we can note the significance of large-scale support to Israel and Egypt, the need to assure access to important oil imports, the crucial nature of ensuring political stability in the region among regimes friendly to America, and the perceived necessity for continued success in containing the spread of both Iraq’s and Iran’s influence in the area. Since the end of the Cold War, the United States—like it very much or not the leading world power in the Middle East, as elsewhere—has become the sponsor and guarantor of the trouble-ridden Israeli-Arab peace process and through a series of regional pacts has incurred numerous obligations in this heavily armed arena. Small wonder that Middle East affairs occupy so much of official Washington’s time and attention.
In part because of this focus, we at American Diplomacy are pleased to feature in this issue the views of three highly knowledgeable commentators on the region, each of whom approaches the question from a different angle.
First, we present an appraisal of the Wye River Conference in October 1998 by a long-time U.S. career diplomat, Ambassador Hermann Eilts, who brings years of experience and reflection to bear upon the latest in seemingly unending efforts to arrange a regional peace agreement.
We then offer another perspective on the results of the Conference and its impact on the Arab-Israeli peace process by Foreign Policy Research Institute President Harvey Sicherman, a former Department of State aide.
Finally, the reader will find Robert Olson’s unusual and intriguing analysis of power relationships in the Middle East helpful in placing the Arab-Israeli conflict in a broader geopolitical context.