ABSTRACT
“Strategic consensus” justified the controversial US sale of Advanced Warning and Communications System aircraft to Saudi Arabia in 1981 and an equally controversial attempt to make Israel a formal “strategic ally.” Whatever the legalities Ronald Reagan and Alexander M. Haig came to oppose the settlements as impediments to the peace process, but they decided to take it up quietly with the Israelis. In Israel that April, Haig found the opposite approach to autonomy. The Americans found, however, that the Egyptians were oddly unreceptive to the manifestation of Israel’s willingness to share some important powers with the Palestinians. Conceivably there could have been some important shared powers if the Israeli proposal for development of future land and water had been taken up. Haig argued strongly that in the absence of unconditional European participation, the entire Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty could be in jeopardy.
