Minus,

While appeasement may be a faulty strategy, negotiations can be effective. In 1979, the Israelis cut a deal with Egypt that gave them back the Sinai, and took Egypt out of any Arab coalition to fight Israel. There have been no major wars involving Israel since then.

The Israelis also reabsorbed a large amount of settlers rather easily.
 

Eifert,

While I understand your logic, and would further agree that negotiations can be effective, I have to stick to my guns on the appeasement issue.

In the case of Israel and Egypt, negotiations were effective. It was a conscious decision between the two nations that basically set the framework for others to follow. Unfortunately, Anwar Sadat paid the price with his life at the hands of some Muslim extremists claiming Islamic jihad. That is nothing new, nor surprising. Coincidently, take a look at who brokered, oh sorry, mediated the deal: none other than your house-building buddy.

I would agree that there have been no major wars involving Israel since then, with one stipulation: that statement holds true with Egypt because of Sadat's commitment to the peace process; no other nation has committed to that process.

After the Israeli's retracted to the pre-1967 border, they had literally, no other choice but to reabsorb the settlers. Where could they have gone? They are facing the same type of situation now.

My main point is this above all else: the Middle East has always (in deference to the timeline we are talking about) been a tumultuous region. The UN Resolutions (338 and 242 specifically) took essentially 12 years to become reality! The whole 'peace process' in the Middle East has been nothing but a string of appeasements.

While I would agree that the 1979 deal was effective for the two nations, it angered most, if not all of the Arab League. Look at the region now. What has really been accomplished? Does Israel have their autonomous regime in Gaza?

It would seem that the 'negotiations' are still going on and will probably will be for many more years to come. Even as of this writing, Israel is concerned about not only the test firing of SCUD-B missiles by Syria, but their alleged program to cap them off with chemical weapons to launch at Israel.

Minus