Robert O. Freedman - The Middle East Since Camp David

First published 1984 by Westview Press

Published 2019 by Routledge

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Copyright 1984 by Taylor & Francis

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Main entry under title:

The Middle East since Camp David.

(Westview special studies on the Middle East)

Bibliography: p.

Includes index.

Contents: Introduction / Robert O. FreedmanSuperpower per
spectives. Soviet policy toward the Middle East since Camp David /
Robert O. FreedmanU.S. policy on the Middle East in the period
since Camp David / Barry Rubin[etc.]

1. Near EastPolitics and government1945 . I. Freedman, Rob
ert Owen. II. Series.

DS63.1.M545 1984 956.05 83-19798

ISBN 13: 978-0-367-29399-4 (hbk)

The Middle East has long been one of the most volatile regions on the globe. Wars, coups detat, rapid shifts in alliances and alignments, numerous intra-Arab and regional conflicts, and constant superpower intervention have wracked the region since the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948. In an effort to increase public understanding of this complex region, the Center for the Study of Israel and the Contemporary Middle East of the Baltimore Hebrew College has held a series of conferences bringing together Middle Eastern specialists from different perspectives to analyze and discuss the region.

The first conference, held in 1978, examined the impact of the Arab-Israeli conflict on the Middle East, and the papers were later published in World Politics and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (Robert O. Freedman, ed., New York: Pergamon, 1979). The second conference, held in 1979, two years into the administration of Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin, made a preliminary analysis of the dynamics of the Begin regime. Following the Israeli election of 1981, the conference papers were updated and published in Israel in the Begin Era (Robert O. Freedman, ed., New York: Praeger, 1982). The third conference, from which this book emerged, dealt with Middle Eastern developments since the Camp David agreements of 1978. Those agreements were a major milestone in Middle Eastern affairs, and the papers, delivered in May 1982, almost four years after the Camp David conference, analyzed the effect of the agreements on the region as a whole as well as on the superpowers that seek influence in it. Less than a month after our conference, the Israeli army invaded Lebanon in an effort to destroy the PLO infrastructure in that country; as a result, the contributors have updated their papers to include analysis of the impact of the Israeli invasion and the subsequent PLO withdrawal from Beirut.

The third conference and the book before you were made possible through the help of a number of individuals and institutions. The conference was cosponsored by the Baltimore Jewish Community Relations Council and the Peggy Meyerhoff Pearlstone School of Graduate Studies of the Baltimore Hebrew College. Dr. Leivy Smolar, president of the Baltimore Hebrew College, has provided strong support for the Institute for the Study of Israel and the Contemporary Middle East since its founding in 1977. The Baltimore Hebrew College Library staff, and its director, Dr. Jesse Mashbaum, provided invaluable research services, and my secretary, Elise Baron, did a masterful job of typing the manuscript while also helping to manage the colleges graduate program. Special thanks are due to Fabian Kolker and the Kolker Foundation for the financial support that enabled the Baltimore Hebrew College to hold the conference that served as the basis for this book.