346 • 18 WAR AND THE QUEST FOR PEACEounce of gold rose more than five times between 1970 and 1978. Are the
oil-exporting states any greedier than their customers?
Prelude to War
In September 1973 the Middle East seemed calm and an Arab-Israeli war
improbable. The Israelis, who had just feted their country's twenty-fifth
birthday, were preparing for another Knesset election. The group that had
ruled Israel since 1948 seemed likely to retain power. The so-called Labor
Alignment was a bloc of moderate and left-wing parties (but without the
Arab and Jewish communists). Leading the alignment was Mapai, once
headed by Ben-Gurion and now by Golda Meir. The ruling Alignment was
in coalition with the National Religious Party, for which many Orthodox
Jews would vote. Menachem Begin, head of the right-wing nationalists,
served in coalition cabinets under Labor from 1967 to 1970, when he re¬
signed to protest Israel's acceptance of the Rogers Plan. He then began
welding Israel's conservative parties into a coalition called the Likud.
US Concerns
The US, having pulled its forces out of Vietnam, was losing interest in for¬
eign affairs. Most Americans had their minds on the scandals involving
Nixon administration officials (mainly the Watergate affair, which grew out
of their efforts to cover up a break-in of the Democratic Party headquarters
in the Watergate office building). Those concerned with long-range issues
watched the growing gap between US consumption and production of
petroleum and other fossil fuels, a deficit that was being met by rising oil
and natural gas imports from the Middle East. Some oil companies argued
that unless Washington took a more balanced approach to the Middle East
conflict, the Arabs would stop selling oil and gas to the West. Given the
power of the pro-Zionist lobby in Washington, a more balanced approach
was unlikely. Although pressure by Jewish (and Gentile) groups had has¬
tened US recognition of Israel in 1948, the Zionist lobby had been ham¬
pered in the early 1950s by the number and variety of Jewish organizations
and pressure groups in Washington. The creation in 1954 of the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee (originally called the American Zionist
Committee for Public Affairs) was an attempt to unify the various voices
for Israel to influence Congress (which tended to favor Israel) and the State
Department (which did not). By 1973 AIPAC was a well-financed organi¬
zation that could manipulate nearly all members of Congress, owing to its