ABSTRACT
The most frequently recurring image in the Arab world long has been that of leaders who—having only a short time before been seriously at odds with each other or even mortal enemies—are then seen warmly embracing in a surge of Arab brotherhood. The survival of the pro-Western regimes of the Gulf gained primary importance to the West, and Western countries increasingly evaluated events in other parts of the Arab world and its periphery in light of the impact of those events on Gulf security. The presence of large groups of nonindigenous Arabs in the Gulf States also meant that the hitherto traditional and closed Gulf societies became much more permeable to the political and ideological currents of the larger Arab world. The likelihood was that some of its elements would advocate a more rejectionist position out of a fear that one or more moderate Arab states would slacken their active opposition to Camp David.
