ABSTRACT
The Jordanian disengagement from the occupied territories has caused some apprehension among Palestinian communities in Jordan, in the occupied territories, and in the Diaspora. Their approach to the Middle East conflict was devoid of interest in an understanding of the core issue—the Palestine problem—or the real concerns and sensibilities of the area. The quest for the containment of Soviet expansion in the Middle East led the United States to seek the collaboration of all the states in the region irrespective of their relationships with each other. In the wake of the October 1973 war and the ensuing Arab oil embargo, the Middle East once again became the focus of US diplomatic efforts. With a newly acquired political perspective, US diplomacy had to face the challenges of both the conflict diplomacy of the cold war and the traditional diplomatic methods of dealing with the countries of the third world.
