ABSTRACT
By January 1983, the initial shock of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon had worn off and the nations and peoples of the Middle East were seeking ways to adjust to the new realities caused by the invasion. Ariel Sharon’s influence in the government diminished rapidly and in mid-July, following the cabinet’s defeat of his call for an inquiry into the government’s conduct of the Lebanese war, there were rumors in the Israeli press that he was considering resigning from the cabinet. Syria had long sought the dominant position in Lebanon and feared that any Lebanese-Israeli agreement would strengthen the Israeli position in Lebanon at Syria’s expense. The next US goal was to try to gain Arab support for the agreement to pressure Syria into withdrawing its forces from Lebanon since Israel refused to carry out the withdrawal provisions of the agreement unless Syria agreed to withdraw simultaneously. Syria continued to escalate its political and military pressure to undermine the Israeli-Lebanese agreement.
