ABSTRACT
11 September 2001, was a defining event for US foreign policy and, by extension, the world. The world’s only superpower, suffering a massive terrorist attack and redirecting its strategic vision as a result, could not help but impact the far reaches of international relations. The fact that the perpetrators were from the Middle East increased the odds that policy would affect the Arab-Israeli conflict, whose ‘peace process’ had concurrently run aground. Failing to reach a negotiated settlement through the summer of 2000, Arabs and Israelis, frustrated with each other’s perceived obstructionism, resumed the distrusting dynamic that preceded the heady optimism of the Oslo process. Symptomatic of this analogical moment was the start of a new, second uprising, called the ‘al-Aqsa intifada’. Peace process gave way to Palestinian violence and terrorism, Israeli state violence and collective punishment, and mounting death on both sides. 1 Despite Clinton’s fight to the end, he would leave office without the crowning achievement of peace in the Middle East.
