ABSTRACT
In the aftermath of the Lebanon war, Israel is facing two crucial challenges in her relations with the Arab world. One is the growing military and political power of Syria, which aims at reaching a strategic balance with Israel and confronting her in both the Golan Heights and Lebanon from a new position of strength. The second challenge is the fresh peace initiative by Eygpt, apparently backed by the pragmatic Arab axis and directed toward reaching a political settlement among Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Arabs. Of these, the second seems to offer to Israel an historic opportunity to settle the century-old Zionist-Palestinian conflict and to revive and extend the peace process started by Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Men-achem Begin in 1977. A theoretical third scenario for shaping Arab-Israeli relations calls for an international peace conference with the participation of all relevant parties including Syria, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
