The Middle East After the Israeli Invasion of Lebanon

The Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June 1982 was in many ways a turning point in Middle Eastern politics. It spurred the United States to get involved in the Arab-Israeli peace process, while it weakened the position of PLO leader Nasser Arafat.

Due to the invasion, the United States became heavily enmeshed in the internal politics of Lebanon, a morass from which it rather ignominiously extracted itself in February 1984. Ironically, neither the Soviet Union nor its ally, Syria, profited greatly from this debacle. The escalation of fighting between Iran and Iraq reinforced the American position in the Middle East. Simultaneously, the formation of a block of Syria's enemies (Egypt, Jordan, and the Arafat wing of the PLO) served co isolate Syria further from the Arab world, while giving a new impetus to the peace process.

These and other key issues are covered in this book, which examines Middle East dynamics from three different levels: extra-regional forces (the United States, the Soviet Union, and Western Europe), regional politics (intra-Arab relations and the Iran-Iraq war), and local politics (Jordan, Israel, the Palestinians, Syria, and Egypt), giving the reader a multidimensional view of Middle Eastern political dynamics.

Robert O. Freeman is the author of Soviet Policy Toward the Middle East Since 1970 and editor of The Middle East Since Camp David and World Politics and the Arab-Israeli Conflict.