ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the changing relationship between Israel's position on the cusp between three regions, and its foreign policy towards the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA). France provided crucial equipment to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), and Israel's budding nuclear programmed. Israel has an association agreement with the European Union (EU) that exempts most Israeli-made products from import duty. It has Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries and Turkey, and NAFTA. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres was more convinced than Yitzhak Rabin that Israel must reformulate its foreign policy towards the PLO. However, setting in motion shifts from one side of the cusp to another, may prove more difficult because of the domestic opposition, resistance from within one or more regions to the proposed change, and the fact that the regional frameworks are not ready to accommodate the proposed shift.
