ABSTRACT
Direct negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian officials began at the Madrid conference in 1991. In the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse and the US-led war against Iraq (1991), the George H. W. Bush administration sought to establish a new order in the region. The White House’s insistence that Israel would have to conform to a new regional order or risk being ostracised by its closest ally is often seen as the primary reason the then Israeli leadership adopted a change in policy and began negotiations. However, this narrative depends on a favourable interpretation of US motives. It suggests that it was always the intention of the US to bring peace to the Middle East and pursue justice (to a certain extent anyway)1 in the case of Israel-Palestine. With the end of the Cold War, it seemed, the US finally had the opportunity to pursue that agenda.
