Containment in the Middle East is expressed in many ways. The United States and Israel strive to contain Iran, including its nuclear project. However there were disputes between the United States and Israel about how to do that, particularly in regard to the military option. It seems that the United States managed both to contain Israel so the latter will not bomb Iran and to contain Iran's nuclear project, to a certain degree. This book discuss containment in the Middle East using recent examples, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Journalist and Middle-East scholar Ehud Eilam provides an overarching look at containment, providing important and timely insight on the extremely fluid political situation in the Middle East. Containment serves several purposes. For both Israel and the Palestinian Authority it has been an alternative to negotiations, until the two sides can agree / force the other to restart the talks. For the United States it was a way to avoid a war, in dealing with Iran's nuclear program. Israel also has been trying to prevent a confrontation in the Gaza Strip by relying on containment, which often worked. This approach, a result of the policy of both sides, has caused suffering to the people living in the Gaza Strip. In other cases containment was meant to weaken the foe without starting a war, as Israel did by bombing shipments of weapons to Hezbollah. Containment was also part of a war, like in suppressing insurgents in Egypt and Syria, which cost the population there dearly, in particular in Syria. This approach was a compromise due to lack of ability to defeat the enemy yet in Syria eventually Assad managed to basically win. Middle East containment served Israel, the United States, and others, but was often also used against those states.
