ABSTRACT
The peace process could also weaken Israeli capabilities to fight in a contingency if such a peace collapsed after Israel had withdrawn from most of the West Bank and the Golan. Palestinian forces are unlikely to have these capabilities until well after the peace negotiations are completed, and even then it seems unlikely that Israel would accept such a level of armament or ignore any change in the combined capabilities of Palestinian and other Arab forces. A war that involved a “race for the Golan” in which Israel and Syria raced to redeploy forces would not expose the Israel Defense Forces to major interference from any Palestinian uprising. Only about half of the forces shown for Egypt and Syria could be committed in any strength without a massive military build-up over a period of at least nine months to a year.
