ABSTRACT
The professional bureaucrats in the Near East and South Asia Bureau of the Slate Department and their counterparts in the CIA and the Pentagon have come to be known as Arabists. The Arabists' opportunity to promote their policy came surprisingly early, primarily because of the influence of Saudi Arabia. Alexander Haig's private response to this entreaty is not known, but the public record shows a shift in his approach. Haig now argued that the peace process was "high on our agenda" and that "talking about strategic consensus is not placing our emphasis on the peace process in a lower priority. Henry Kissinger's concern was a public reflection of the fact that the Reagan Plan was by no means designed as a "pure Jordanian option" in which Hussein would be encouraged to replace the Palestinian Liberation Organization as spokesman for the Palestinians. US policy-makers face a strategic decision in their efforts to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict.
