Middle East: Why Should Americans Care?

So why should Americans care whether anything comes of the peace process set in motion last week in Madrid? Are the stakes high enough to justify the considerable investment of President Bush's time and prestige? Do the risks of failure outweigh the potential gains? Is "peace in the Middle East" something Americans really need -- or one of those diehard shibboleths that keep successive U.S. Administrations chasing around the track?

Ironically, if the prospects for peace in this perpetually troubled region have never looked brighter, the need for a prompt resolution of the Middle East's age-old hostilities has seldom seemed less urgent. The cold war is over, so U.S. fears of a regional tussle escalating into a superpower conflagration have subsided. Immediate threats to Israel's security are not much in evidence. Syria, despite a potent army, is no longer able to tap Moscow for funds and is wooing Washington to attract trade and investment. Egypt has a de jure peace with Israel, Jordan a de facto one. Lebanon is struggling after 16 years of civil war. Iraq is prostrate. And the Palestinians are virtually without patrons. The threat of an oil embargo that could paralyze the U.S. seems distant, given Washington's strong post-Desert Storm ties with Saudi Arabia. Even the hostage crisis is subsiding.

But the short answer is yes, Middle East peace is important to our own well- being. It is not just a moral obligation -- though, for a democracy and superpower, it is very much that. The U.S. has a tangle of specific strategic, political and economic interests in the region that ought to make Americans care about achieving peace -- and its corollary, stability.

While the gulf war forced Israel and its Arab neighbors to the same side of the barricades, the alliance was temporary. The Arab-Israeli conflict remains a festering wound that prevents all the nations of the region from concentrating on economic and political improvement. The enmity bars Arab states from fully embracing Washington. It continues to spawn terrorist attacks throughout the region, including strikes on American targets like last week's rocket hit on the U.S. embassy in Beirut. And it compels Washington to remain fixated on Israel's security, a posture that fuels anti-American sentiment -- and costs U.S. taxpayers a bundle.

The absence of a secure and stable peace gives all hostile parties a ready excuse to continue building their military arsenals. "In any future war lurks the danger of weapons of mass destruction," Bush warned in Madrid last week. - Israel is assumed to have a nuclear capability, and Iran and Iraq are in hot pursuit of the same. Iraq has already demonstrated its willingness to take on the American military juggernaut. As long as there is an Arab vein to tap that longs for the destruction of Israel -- and by association, the U.S. -- the Saddam Husseins of the world pose a genuine threat to American interests.