ABSTRACT
With this theoretically informed historical account, I have revealed the major decisions and reasons for US policy across various aspects of the conflict, both the interstate dimension—between Israel and neighboring Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon—and the Palestinian dimension, between conflicting nations in the space that was the British mandate of Palestine. I have shown both causes and consequences of US policy in the region and in the conflict, suggesting both continuity and change. In this concluding chapter, I summarize the findings from this book, both patterns and idiosyncrasies, and place them back in the theoretical context outlined in Chapter 1. Reviewing the levels of analysis and different hypotheses that explain US policy, I match the findings with the theories to draw some general conclusions. I then turn to the implications of US policy, both summarizing it historically and speculating on it for the present and future. This section includes policy recommendations for the US as it seeks to address this and other complicated regional issues simultaneously in the post-‘9/11’ world.
