Abstract

Myth of the `pax Americana.'

Today more than half the Middle Eastern land mass is without the U.S. diplomatic representation. Yet, people are asked to admire the U.S.'s political success in the Middle East, and to have faith that the grotesque imbalance built into the Arab- Israeli negotiations represents a just peace. The unspoken truth is that U.S. policies, and the Arab leaders who have endorsed them, are becoming ever more unpopular throughout the region. The Pax Americana, which is founded on the Arab-Israeli "peace process," at its center, and the Iran/Iraq "containment program," at its fringe, necessitates much deception. True, the initial peace conference at Madrid in the fall of 1991 suggested that a just peace could be obtained for Arabs and Israelis alike. U.S. Secretary of State James Baker repeatedly said that a future peace would be constructed around United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, the first of which demands Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Arab land.