The New York Times

12 April 2003

 

By Shibley Telhami

 

The relevance of the Arab-Israeli conflict in American policy toward the Middle East will once again be highly debated as Saddam Hussein's regime falls. This very subject has itself become a political issue. Arab publics fear that if the conflict is deemed unimportant, it means that the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has a green light to dictate his terms, while Arab governments worry that attention could shift to their own authoritarian political structures. Israelis, meanwhile, fear that if the issue is deemed too important, it means that the United States would pressure Israel and impose a solution not to their liking.