Crisis in the Middle East

It would be useful to turn first to the end of Taylor's book in order to discover how relevant his book is in early 1992. In the final paragraph in the book, Taylor writes that "The 1990 Gulf crisis and the war that followed demonstrated . . . the ability of unresolved regional problems to disrupt the political equilibrium in the Middle East . . . The Indigenous social forces are powerful, and . . . the grievances they experience cannot be ignored. The failure of the superpowers to grasp this in the past only aggravated the situation . . . The magnitude of the crisis should be the best guarantee of a very different approach to the Middle East in Washington and Moscow" (Taylor, 1991, p. 198).

This paragraph indicates the author's excellent and crucial insight that the superpowers, with all their power, could not and cannot control the Middle East as much as they may wish to. The most powerful forces at work in the Middle East are social forces indigenous to the region, and if the superpowers or an

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ted Moscow in April 1988, Gorbachev told him that 'The search for a solution to the Middle East problem should be based on negotiations . . . and not on armed force . . . Recognition of the State of Israel and account for its security interests . . . is a necessary element in the establishment of peace . . . in the region on the basis of international law" (Taylor, 1991, p. 172). While the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s and the Persian Gulf War of 1991 were certainly significant events in the Middle East, it is instructive to note that while they have come and gone, the fundamental issue of the Middle East conflict --- the Palestinian issue --- remains. As Diller writes, "The Middle East is afflicted with major conflicts that seem to defy solution. Disputes between Arabs and Israelis, Iranians and Iraqis, and other antagonists go beyond disagreements over territory or fears concerning a rival's geopolitical and economic goals. The combatants in these squabbles often hate each other because of decades of mutual hostilities and ethnic, religious, and cultural prejudices. Constructing long-term settlements requires not only carefully drawn compromises backed by international guarantees, but also fundamental changes in the attitude
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Approximate Word count = 5297
Approximate Pages = 21 (250 words per page)

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