ABSTRACT
The Gulf crisis was essentially a globalized inter-Arab conflict. It primarily affected United States (US) relations with the Persian Gulf sector of the Middle East rather than the Arab-Israeli sector. The Gulf crisis, on another level, inevitably did impinge on US-Israel relations directly, especially as the war against Iraq drew to a close. While the Bush administration achieved a military victory in the Gulf sector of the Middle East, once hostilities ended it highlighted peacemaking in the Arab-Israeli sector as what it hoped would become its major postwar diplomatic achievement. Since the establishment of US-Israeli strategic cooperation under the Reagan administration, American spokespersons have been careful to point out that the strategic direction of this cooperation was the eastern Mediterranean. The location and circumstances of this particular crisis had made Israel's contribution more subtle, especially in the postwar period. The peace process had another subtle form of interaction with Gulf security arrangements and US-Israeli strategic ties.
