The Arab-Israeli conflict and superpower rivalry

Abstract

President Annuar Sadat's initiative to go to Israel in November 1977 was widely hailed as a daring venture offering the prospect of peace in the area. Even though progress has been made towards Egyptian-Israeli rapprochement, little has been achieved in terms of an Arab-Israeli peace settlement and of an overall peace and justice in the area. Whether the Israeli and American politicians would like to admit it or not the question of real peace in the region is ultimately and intimately locked into the issue of Palestinian rights of self determination. The Camp David Accords of 1979 could at best be seen as a half-hearted attempt of recognition to Palesti- nian autonomy and at worst an indifference to the issues at hand. The present Arab-Israeli conflict can be categorized into three levels, the local, regional and global levels. The first involves the core of the struggle, but most ignored, the struggle between the Israeli Jews and the Palestinian Arabs, each claiming rights in a territory of vague boundaries that each regards as its national homeland. The second, since 1948 has involved a broader regional conflict to include the Arab states with the Palestinians being passive actors in their own struggle. And the third assumes international dimensions with the direct involvement of the two superpowers the United States and the Soviet Union in the conflict and the affairs of the region in general.