ABSTRACT
Israeli foreign policy initiatives and responses to external overtures are mediated by a complicated network of internal mechanisms. The Knesset ratification of the Egyptian-Israeli peace accords in 1979 brought the responsive phase of Israeli foreign policymaking to a close. The degree of cooperation among coalition members and officeholders, the extent of social friction, and the scope of ideological polarization have an important bearing on foreign policy decisions. The factors governing the foreign policymaking process have been particularly mutable since 1977. The national unity government had considerable leeway in formulating and executing foreign policy in comparison with its partisan antecedents. Changes in the political environment necessarily affect the role of social groups in shaping foreign policy. Foreign policy has been very much a reflection of the heterogeneous domestic issues and predilections. The consolidation of the national unity government imposed some order on the delineation of national and hence of foreign policy priorities.
