A second event that took place, not in North
America but that was directly related to U.S. actions
and policies in the Middle East, was the bombing of
U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on August 7,
- The bombings were coordinated, as they oc-
curred simultaneously, together killing more than
two hundred people and injuring thousands. Subse-
quent investigation showed these attacks were
planned by a group known as al-Qaeda. These
bombings brought to the world for the first time the
name of their primary planner, Osama Bin Laden.
A third event that occurred was the crash of
EgyptAir Flight 990 sixty miles south of Nantucket Is-
land, Massachusetts, in October, 1999. The plane
was headed from New York to Cairo, and the crash
killed more than two hundred people. Transcripts
from flight information indicated that the airplane
crashed shortly after relief pilot Gamil el-Batouti
took control of the airplane and was reported to
have said, “I made my decision now. I put my faith in
God’s hands.” Investigators stated that the crash was
the result of human, not mechanical, error. Al-
though there was never concrete proof that the
crash was a deliberate act of terrorism, many Ameri-
cans came to that conclusion.
Impact Events in the Middle East during the 1990’s
were a mixture of both stasis and change. What re-
mained static were the relations between Israel and
the Palestinians, with another decade gone by with-
out a peace agreement or final status for either party.
In addition, the United States continued to be seen
as the one external party that could break the dead-
lock on progress, but without any significant results.
What changed was the level and types of U.S. involve-
ment in the Middle East. The primary change was
the direct military involvement by U.S. forces in
Iraq. Another major change was the taking of center
stage for U.S. foreign affairs of Middle Eastern is-
sues. With the Cold War over at the end of the
1980’s, many officials saw the 1990’s as the emer-
gence of a clash of civilizations between the West and
a revived Islamic Middle East. Although others
downplayed such a clash, a marked focus on the
Middle East, for both government officials and for
Americans generally, was a definite consequence.
Subsequent Events Events in the Middle East, par-
ticularly as they related to U.S. action and policies,
led to even more dramatic events in the first years of
the new millennium. Barely into the twenty-first cen-
tury, the world witnessed the attacks of September
11, 2001, and the subsequent “war on terrorism” and
invasion of Iraq in 2003. U.S. foreign policy became
dominated by concerns related to the Middle East,
with an important carryover to domestic issues, both
political and economic.Further Reading
Barber, Benjamin R.Jihad vs. McWorld. New York:
Ballantine, 1995. A very readable examination of
the impact of Western culture on traditional Mid-
dle Eastern societies.
Barboza, Stephen.American Jihad: Islam After Malcolm
X. New York: Image Books, 1994. A close look at
the rise of Islam in America during the second
half of the twentieth century, particularly among
African Americans.
Gerner, Deborah J., and Jillian Schwedler.Under-
standing the Contemporar y Middle East, 2d ed. Boul-
der, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 2004. An excellent
overview of contemporary Middle Eastern cul-
ture and societies, going beyond merely politics
and history.
Kamalipour, Yahya R., ed.The U.S. Media and the Mid-
dle East: Image and Perception. New York: Praeger,- A fine collection of essays focused on por-
trayals of the Middle East and how those portray-
als both shape and are shaped by popular and po-
litical values.
Roberts, John.Visions and Mirages: The Middle East in
a New Era. Edinburgh, Scotland: Mainstream Pub-
lishing, 1995. A thorough and accessible look at
contemporary Middle Eastern societies, particu-
larly social and cultural changes over the past cen-
tury.
Rugh, William.American Encounters with Arabs: The
“Soft Power” of U.S. Public Diplomacy in the Middle
East. New York: Praeger, 2005. An in-depth and
“on the ground” review of public diplomacy prac-
ticed by the United States over the past century in
relation to nations in the Middle East.
Schoenbaum, David.The United States and the State of
Israel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
An unflinching look at the history and ongoing
web of relations between the United States and Is-
rael and how they impact general U.S. policies in
and toward the Middle East.
Sifry, Micah L., and Christopher Cerf, eds.The Gulf
War Reader. New York: Doubleday, 1991. An ex-
pansive and rich collection of material, written
570 Middle East and North America The Nineties in America