These are notes for a talk given at the Nauset Fellowship, Chapel in the Pines in 2008. They are based on the books listed in the Bibliography and several web sites, particularly Wikipedia. The talk was an attempt to offer an even-handed account of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. As this is not a scholarly article, no references are given.
Introduction
Remember: Both Arabs and Jews have lived in Palestine continuously for thousands of years. They were probably once the same people, the Canaanites. Neither has priority.
I ended the preceding talk, Palestine to 1948, an illustrated Chronology with the following summary points: 1) By the late 19th century European Jews believed they needed their own state in order to survive. They were fortunate in their leadership, they had much help from outside, and they achieved their goal. 2) Palestinian Arabs appear to have awakened to a national consciousness only in the 1920’s and 1930’s. They were much divided, had poor leadership, and received little help from other Arab countries. 3) Had Jews and Palestinian Arabs cooperated over the past 120 years, Palestine today might be a peaceful and prosperous modern nation with an Arab majority, or the states of Israel and Palestine might exist happily side-by-side, making the desert bloom.
Over the 60 years from 1948 until today, Israel has grown in size and strength but not in security. Polls indicate that the majority of Israelis and Palestinians would prefer peace at almost any price. Many leaders on both sides have worked tirelessly for an agreement. And yet a number of Arab and Muslim leaders have continuted to call for the destruction of Israel. In response, Israel has developed a powerful military and weapons of mass destruction, has occupied all of Palestine, has settled permanently in much of it, and has greatly oppressed the Palestinian Arabs. A small but growing minority of secular nationalist or ultra-conservative religious Israelis want the State of Israel to annex all of Palestine. The Israeli parliamentary governments have depended for some years on coalitions with conservative minority parties which can generally block any action. Many of the new West Bank settlements are funded and staffed by American ultra-Orthodox. A once socialist egalitarian Israeli society has become a capitalist economy with as deep divisions between rich and poor as in the United States or and other country and as much corruption.
Tremendous diplomatic efforts were made during these 60 years by men of good will on all sides. Dennis Ross's book, The Missing Peace: the inside story of the fight for Middle East Peace, makes this clear in great detail for the 1990's.
Neither a unified Palestine nor independent Israeli and Palestinian states existing side by side in peace are impossible dreams. But either will be difficult to achieve. -- For additions, corrections, and problems, please send a Comment from the Home Page.
1949
Cease Fire.
A bi-lateral ceasefire with all parties was reached early in 1949 with the help of Dr. Ralph Bunche, UN Mediator for Palestine. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950.
Israel's Borders.
The border with Egypt was restored to its previous line, with the exception of the Gaza Strip where Egypt continued in control. The borders with Lebanon and Syria were restored to their previous line. The West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem were under Jordanian control. Jordan guaranteed the Israeli Jews access to the Wailing Wall, but this didn’t happen until 1967. The "1949 Armistice Line" became known as the "Green Line".
After the 1948 War of Independence, Israel controlled 77% of Palestine. The State of Israel was a humiliating fact for the Arabs. The despised Jews had beaten them soundly. It was called al-Nakba, the catastrophe, the colossal failure, and they correctly blamed it on their leaders.
There was to be no peace. The Secretary of the Arab League said, “Our secret weapon is time. As long as we don’t make peace, the war isn’t over. If we recognize the State of Israel, we are conquered.” Any peace effort would be betrayal. Israel was boycotted by all Arab nations. Many Palestinians later acknowledged that not accepting the situation and working with the Israelis was an historic mistake.
Jerusalem.
The UN General Assembly voted for an internationalized City of Jerusalem, but West Jerusalem was incorporated by Israel in December 1949. Some Israelis would have preferred the economic advantages of an internationalized Jerusalem, but they couldn’t buck Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and public opinion. Ben-Gurion’s Mapai Party began its 30 years of domination in Israeli politics.
The Knesset proclaimed West Jerusalem the Capital of Israel, the only nation that had made Jerusalem its Capital since the Kar Kochba Revolt in CE 125. The Knesset met in Jerusalem to elect Chaim Weizmann the first President of Israel (a largely honorary position). Most foreign governments kept their embassies in Tel Aviv.
Palestinian Refugees.
The Zionists had assumed before the 1948 War that a large Arab minority would remain in Israel, but over 700,000 Palestinians left their homes and villages.
This is a subject of vigorous dispute. Israel claimed that the Arab military leaders told Arab civilians to leave their homes temporarily, so that their armies could drive the Jews into the sea. They said thousands of Arabs fled needlessly in fear, without ever seeing an Israeli soldier.
The Arabs claimed they were driven out by force and by fear of massacres such as Deir Yassin. But almost everyone had publicly forecast a quick victory, and some Arab broadcasts did assure refugees they would shortly be returning to their homes.
There’s truth on both sides. Perhaps half of the Arabs were forced out. The “right of return” to their former homes in what is now the state of Israel has been a demand of the Palestinians for 60 years. It has never been seriously considered by the Israelis.
Refugee Camps.
The surrounding Arab countries didn’t absorb the refugees from the 1948 war but kept them in miserable camps where many of their numerous descendents still live 60 years later. The Arabs didn’t want them in their countries, and the camps served as a permanent political weapon against Israel. Within a decade after World War II, tens of millions of refugees from around the world were successfully integrated into other countries.
1950’s
The Zionists were right. The Jews in Europe had been in deadly danger. The Holocaust had happened, and “what has happened,” said Aristotle , “can happen again.” The Arabs were seen as trying to finish Hitler’s work. This was used to justify a position of implacability. Behind the Holocaust lay two millennia of persecution by the entire Gentile world.
In 1950 Anwar Sadat published a letter in which he said Hitler was right about the Jews.
Over 700,000 Jewish refugees came from Europe. Jewish population of Israel doubled to nearly 1.5 million from 1948 to 1951.
Jordan annexed East Jerusalem and the West Bank to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. They saw any independent Palestinian organization as a threat. Palestinian political activity went abroad. Few major Palestinian families now played a role. Younger educated Palestinians took over. There was hope for an agreement with Jordan’s King Abdullah, but he was assassinated in 1951 by the Grand Mufti’s men. No Arab leader could safely negotiate with Israel.
Oriental Jews.
130,000 Jews were allowed to leave Iraq in the early 1950’s if they left their possessions and renounced their citizenship.
Nearly a million Jews left or were driven out of all the other Middle-Eastern Arab countries, including Kurdistan, Yemen, and Morocco. Oriental Jews, the Sephardim, now formed more than half the population of Jewish Palestine. They were more strongly anti-Arab than the European Jews. – For the million Jews in the Arab world, assimilation had never been a remote possibility.
Unit 101.
There were many Palestinian guerrilla attacks during the 1950’s and many murderously effective reprisals by the Israel Defense Force’s Unit 101, which was commanded by Major Ariel Sharon. Abba Eben said “The idea that Arabs could kill Israelis without any subsequent Istraeli reaction was close to becoming an international doctrine.”
From the early 1950’s on, the Soviet Union sided with the Arabs against Israel. Israel allied itself with the United States. American Jews did much for Israel. Israel provided American Jews with an “old country” actually on the map, and Jews became like other U.S. immigrants, more human, less strange.
1952
Gamal Abdel Nasser held power in Egypt from 1952-1970. A supporter of pan-Arabism, he later helped found the Palestine Liberation Organization.
In 1955, a representative of Nasser’s government said, “Egypt will erase the shame of the Palestinian war even if Israel should fulfill all U.N. Resolutions.”
1956
1956 War.
In 1956, Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to Israel. As the straits were in international waters, this implied that Israel was not a nation and that any country that acquiesced in the closing was in agreement.
Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal. Israel conspired with Britain and France to invade the Sinai and re-take the canal. This upset Washington’s policy of enlisting the Arabs against the Soviets, so Eisenhower forced Israel to withdraw before Britain and France could move effectively. A UN peace keeping force was placed in Sinai, and the US guaranteed right of passage for Israeli shipping. Subsequently Israel had 10 years of valuable peace with Egypt.
1957
Yad Vashem.
In 1957, Yad Vashem, the memorial to victims of the Holocaust, was opened on Mt. Herzl. The name is from Isaiah and means “a place and a name.” “Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name...I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.”
1958
In 1958, Iraqi nationalist army officers overthrew Britain’s client, King Faisal. The Baghdad Coup undermined the pro-Arab influences in the British Foreign Office and the U.S. State Department and strengthened Israel. The U.S. began to view the people and the government of Israel as pro-Western and trustworthy. This close relationship has largely been maintained ever since.
Fatah and Arafat.
Fatah, a Palestinian nationalist movement, was founded in 1958. Yasser Arafat soon became its spokesman. It was secular and center-left and eventually became the largest party in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). It preached direct armed action against Israel and independence from Arab governments. It supports a number of militant sub-groups. Yasser Arafat had been elected president of the Union of Palestinian Students in Cairo in 1952. He became Chairman of the Executive Committee of the PLO in 1969, and President of the Palestinian Authority from 1996 to his death in 2004. His greatest accomplishment was in gaining recognition in 1974 by the Arab league and most of the world for the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
1960
Adolph Eichman
In 1960, Israeli Agents abducted Adolf Eichmann from Argentina. In 1961, the Eichmann trial was seen around the world. Eichmann was convicted of coordinating the Holocaust and was executed in June, 1962.
Hanna Arendt
Hanna Arendt’s book Eichman in Jerusalem emphasized the “banality of evil,” that ordinary people can become involved in war crimes by “following orders.” The trial also changed the attitude of native-born Israelis toward the camp survivors. Except for partisans, survivors had been largely ignored and even considered “collaborators.” Now all survivors were considered “heroes”. The trial also emphasized the need for a strong and self-reliant Israel.
Ben-Gurion said after the trial, “There is no Nazi Germany anymore.” The Germans were relieved to hear this and offered Israel generous reparations.
1964
Palestine Liberation Organization
In May 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was formed. The Palestinian National Charter or Palestinian National Covenant or Basic Constitution of the PLO declared Israel “entirely illegal.” and to be destroyed. The charter was amended in 1968 to say that Israel had a right to exist, but it was not formally changed until 1993 when Israel and the PLO recognized each other. Yasser Arafat was the head of the PLO from 1969 until he was succeeded at his death in 2004 by Mahmoud Abbas. In 1999 the PLO was reputed to have billions in assets.
Teddy Kollek
In 1965, Teddy Kollek was elected Mayor of Jerusalen. He served for 30 years and improved the city tremendously. He worked well with the Arabs and believed in the eventual unification of Jerusalem. -- Here he is with David Ben Gurion.
1966
Arab Israelis.
Most Arabs who remained in Israel were granted citizenship but lived under restrictions which amounted to martial law. In 1966 Arab citizens were theoretically granted the same rights as Jewish citizens. The 1967 six day war marked a dramatic turning point in the lives of Israel's Arab citizens. For the first time since Israel's establishment, Arab citizens now had contact with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. This, along with the lifting of military rule, led to increased political activism among Arab citizens, challenging Israel's Jewish Identity.
1967
The popular song Jerusalem of Gold by Shuli Nathan was first sung on May 15, Israeli Independence Day, three weeks before the start of the ’67 war.
As clear as wine, the wind is flying
Among the dreamy pines
As evening light is slowly dying
And a lonely bell still chimes,
So many songs, so many stories
The stony hills recall ...
Around her heart my city carries
A lonely ancient wall.
........etc.
Six Day War
The exact sequence of events that led to the 1967 Six Day War is unclear. Nasser may have hoped to stop Israel from producing nuclear weapons, but probably the main cause of the war was Nasser’s need to recover his declining prestige. The Soviets told him there was an Israeli build-up on the Syrian border, which wasn’t true. The efforts of Israel to reassure Nasser that they had no intention of attacking Syria only encouraged him to go farther. He ordered UN troops out of the Sinai, occupied Sharm al-Sheik, and closed the Straits of Tiran. Arab leaders competed in their warlike rhetoric.
Some top Israeli officers may have welcomed the war, although Israel is regularly accused of war mongering. If so, Nasser made it easy for them. In an emergency move, Moshe Dayan became Israeli Minister of Defense. Menachem Begin entered the government. U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk said, “I don’t think it’s our business to restrain anyone.”
Air War
On June 5th, Israel destroyed the Egyptian air force on the ground. Despite this, Nasser announced a series of victories, and Syria and Jordan entered the war without knowing that Egypt was already effectively defeated. The six-day war resulted in the Israeli occupation of all of Palestine, Gaza, the West Bank, Sinai, and the Golan Heights of Syria.
Here are Motta Gur (leader of the Israeli paratroopers), Moshe Dayan, and Yitzak Rabin (chief of staff)striding up Via Dolorosa from St. Stephen’s Gate. It is called the Lion’s Gate because of two stone lions carved on it by order of Suleiman the Magnificent in 1538.
Israeli Paratroopers at the Wailing Wall.
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Moshe Dayan said, “We have returned to the holiest of our sites and will never again be separated from it. We have come not to conquer the holy places of others or to diminish their religious rights, but to ensure the unity of the city and to live in it with others in harmony.” Dayan had the Israeli flag taken down from the Dome of the Rock, where Israeli soldiers had raised it, and ordered his soldiers off the Temple Mount.
UNSC Resolution 242
Adopted in November 1967, UN Security Council Resolution 242 called for: 1) Israeli withdrawal to pre-1967 borders, and 2) respect for the political independence of every state in the area and their right to live in peace within secure boundaries. – Israel could accept this Resolution by linking 1 firmly with 2.
All Arab nations and the Palestinians rejected it. An Arab summit in Khartoum in September 1967 had issued the “Three NO’s”: No peace, No negotiations, and No recognition. Israel was ready to return nearly all the captured territories for peace, but the Arabs were not ready to accept Israel.
Israel’s borders were now far more defensible.
Israel announced the reunification of Jerusalem. As one Arab wrote, “Hundreds of former friendships were brought back to life.” For many of the 199,000 Jews and 66,000 Arabs of Jerusalem the prospect of cooperation did promise hope of a better era. But Arab terrorists immediately tried to end this rapprochement.
Fatah
Fatah (acronymn of Palestine National Liberation Movement) joined the PLO, with Arafat as chairman, and became the dominant force in Palestinian politics after the 1967 War. Although it has carried out thousands of guerrilla attacks against Israel, unlike its Islamist rival Hamas Fatah is not considered a terrorist organization but the U.S.
Arab Israelis had full citizen rights and many did fairly well in Israel, but Israeli Arabs got no help from the world Arab community, whereas the Jews received much. Arabs remained suspect. Many Arabs who stayed in Israel refused compensation in hope of getting their land back. – In 1990 40% of Jewish Israelis thought Israeli Arabs should be “encouraged” to emigrate. By 2007 62% thought this.
Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir said notoriously that the Palestinian people didn’t exist, meaning that they had no coherent structure, and no political existence.
1969
In 1969, Yasser Arafat was elected chairman of the PLO executive committee.
1970
In September 1970, alarmed by growing Palestinian power in Jordan, King Hussein’s army drove the PLO out of Jordan into Lebanon. Palestinians called this “the Black September.”
The President of Egypt Abdul Nasser died and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat.
1972
Munich
Fatah’s Black September organization kidnapped 11 Israeli athletes at Munich Olympics 1972. All died in a shootout with German troops. It was claimed by the Egyptian press that this had been arranged by Israel to gain sympathy. That same kind of claim was made after 9/11.
1973
Yom Kippur War
On Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, October 26 in 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel. Golda Meir’s administration had ignored peace overtures from Egyptian President Sadat and had disregarded intelligence warnings of an attack. Meir was able to secure an emergency American arms airlift, and following massive US re-supply, Israel pushed back the Syrians and threatened Damascus. Ariel Sharon crossed the Suez Canal and cut off the Egyptian Third Army. But Israeli had been surprised, and their casualties had been high. Syria and Egypt declared the war a victory. Israel’s invulnerability was put in question, and for the first time an oil embargo had been used as a weapon. This caused panic in the West.
1974
In 1974, an Arab League Summit at Rabat proclaimed the PLO to be the sole representative of the Palestinian people. The PLO was granted observer status by the UN.
1975
In 1975, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Israel, saying that Washington would not recognize or negotiate with the P.L.O. until the organization recognized Israel's right to exist and accepted UN Resolutions 242 and 338.
A multi-faceted Civil War in Lebanon, among Christians, Sunnis, Shiites, Druze, and Palestinians, lasted from 1975 to 1990 Syria occupied Lebanon from 1976 until April 2005
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Zionism is Racism
In November 1975, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 3379 declaring Zionism to be a form of racism. This resolution was repealed in 1991. Abba Eben once remarked, “If Algeria introduced a resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions.”
Invitation to the Jews
In 1975, an invitation was extended through the Palestine Liberation Organization for all Jews who had fled from Arab states since 1948 "to return and exercise their full rights." The Iraqi government invited the 140,000 Jews that had left in 1948. This offer was made presumably to support the Arab “right of return” and to counteract Israel's arguments that: 1) The majority of Palestinian refugees left of their own free will. 2) The majority of Jews left fleeing religious persecution. 3) The Palestinian Refugees were on the whole migrant workers who regularly roamed throughout the Middle East. 4) The Oriental Jews were forced to flee their homes where they had lived, sometimes for thousands of years.
1977
Menachem Begin
In 1977, Menachem Begin of the right-wing Likud Party was elected Prime Minister, largely by the Sephardim, Jews who had immigrated from neighboring Arab countries. Israeli settlement of the West Bank and Gaza was intensified. Begin had come to Palestine from Russia in 1942 and became the leader of the terrorist Irgun organization.
Sadat in Jerusalem
In 1977 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat flew to Jerusalem and spoke in the Israeli Knesset. This was the first breach in the 33 year determination by all Arab states to destroy Israel. Sadat strongly maintained the Palestinian’s right of return to former homes. Egypt was shunned by other Arab leaders, and there was great pressure on him to maintain the condemnation of Israel.
Following Anwar Sadat's visit to Israel, 348 Israeli military reserves officers petitioned Prime Minister Begin to continue with the drive for peace. This petition led to the creation of Peace Now, a movement dedicated to raising public support for the peace process. Support waned after the start of the al-Aksa INtifade in 2000.
1978
In 1978, the PLO seized a sight-seeing bus in Lebanon and killed 35 Israelis. Jimmy Carter said, “I considered Israel’s invasion of Lebanon to be an overreaction, a threat to peace, and perhaps part of a plan for a permanent Israeli presence in Southern Lebanon.” Israel withdrew its troops, and a UN peacekeeping force replaced them.
Camp David Accords
The 1978, Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt formed the basis of the Peace Treaty signed in 1979. The main features were: mutual recognition, cessation of war, Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai, and the free passage of Israeli ships through the Suez Canal. Israel agreed again to Resolution 242, requiring withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza after peace was assured. There was no agreement on Jerusalem, Israeli settlements, or Palestinian refugees. Arafat said he was prevented by the Soviets and the Syrians from accepting the deal, at a time when there were only 5000 Israeli setlers in the West Bank. An Arab Summit at Baghdad rejected the Accord. Sadat was assassinated in 1981.
1979
In 1979 the Peace treaty between Egypt and Israel was signed at the White House.
1980
In 1980 the Israeli Knesset voted 99 to 51 permanently to annex East Jerusalem The UN Security Council voted 14 to 0 that Israel lacked the authority to do this.
1981
In 1981, to the relief of almost everyone in the Middle East, Israeli aircraft destroyed Iraq’s nuclear reactor. Iraq had publicly threatened to destroy Israel if it succeeded in building a bomb.
Sharon
In 1981, Menachem Begin was elected Prime Minister for a second term. He named Ariel Sharon Defense Minister. More Israeli settlements were established. Sadat was assassinated by Islamic radicals.
1982
In April 1982, Israel withdrew from the Sinai
First Lebanon War.
Lebanon was home to 400,000 Palestinian refugees from the 1948 and 1967 wars with Israel and from their 1970 battle with Jordan. The PLO had sponsored many raids and rocket attacks from Lebanon. In June 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon to stop the attacks. 17,000 Arabs were killed and many more made homeless. Israel surrounded Beirut. The Israeli occupation continued until 2000.
Hezbullah or "Party of God," an Islamist resistance group, was founded in Lebanon in 1982 as an Iranian-backed extremist Shi'a movement that aimed to expel Israel from Lebanon, attack American establishments, and aid Palestinian statehood. They are responsible for bombing the American Embassy and the marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, many kidnappings of Americans, and much violence against Israel.
In September 1982, 12,000 PLO guerillas were forced to leave Lebanon and move to Tunisia and other Arab countries.
Sabra and Shatila
In September 1982, Lebanese Christian Militia units were allowed by Israeli forces to enter the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla, where they killed between 400 and 800 Palestinian men, women, and children. The Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been held responsible for this massacre. The Israeli Peace Now movement sponsored a huge demonstration demanding an end to the war.
1983
U.S. Marines Barracks
In 1983, a Hezbullah suicide bomber destroyed the US Marine compound in Beirut, killing 241 Americans. Another bomber destroyed the American Embassy in Beirut, killing 25. The Americans shelled Lebanon from the sea and left.
1985
In September 1985, P.L.O. guerrillas killed three Israelis on a hijacked yacht in Cyprus. In October, Israeli planes bombed P.L.O. headquarters in Tunis in reprisal, killing 65 people.
In 1985, an Israel unity government headed by Shimon Peres ordered withdrawal from Lebanon except for a small security zone. Israel finally withdrew from the security zone in 2000, when Ehud Barak was President.
1987
First Intifada
In 1987 the First Palestinian Intifadah, or “shaking off,” began spontaneously. The trigger was the death in Gaza of four Palestinian workers in a road accident with an Israeli vehicle. Stone-throwing Palestinian teens attacked Israeli soldiers. Increasing violence followed. A supporter of Israel’s Peace Now said, “I have no hatred for the Arabs. I would be willing to give back territory for peace. But this cannot continue.” The intifada introduced political Islam as a mobilizing force, and a new group of young nationalists that chalenged the PLO's old guard in exile.
Hamas
In 1987, Hamas (or Islamic Resistance Movement) was founded in Gaza as an offshoot of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. Their charter demanded the destruction of Israel and referred to “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” 24 documents fabricated in Tsarist Russia in the late 1890’s which outlined a fictitious Jewish plan to dominate the world. Unlike the PLO, Hamas drew its strength from the mosques, and wanted a religious state. It encouraged martyrdom.
1988
In 1988, Jordan ceded the West Bank to the PLO. In November 1988, to avoid becoming irrelevant, Arafat and the Palestine National Council of the PLO, in exile, declared a Palestinian state, recognized Israel’s right to exist, and renounced terrorism. These were the first steps towards Oslo. President Reagan authorizes the start of a ''substantive dialogue'' with the P.L.O., saying it has met the American conditions for direct talks. In June 1989, President George H.W. Bush suspended the dialogue with the P.L.O. after terrorist attacks.
1990’s
Russian Jews
In the 1990’s 700,000 Jews came to Israel from the former Soviet Union. They were generally secular and well-educated and became very important in Israeli society, especially in the military. This temporarily offset the rapid growth the Orthodox community.
1990
First Gulf War
Yassir Arafat supported Iraq during the First Gulf War, August 1990 to February 1991. As a result, Palestinian guest workers were thrown out of Kuwait and other Arab countries, increasing poverty and desperation in Palestine.
1991
In october 1991, the Madrid Conference hosted by Spain and co-sponsored by the USA and the USSR held the first public bilateral talks between Israel and its neighbors other than Egypt. More countries opened diplomatic and economic relations with Israel.
1992
The First Infitada waned in 1992, as the new Rabin government negotiated with the PLO. It ended early in 1993. 700 Arabs had been killed by the Israeli army and 500 by fellow Arabs. The Palestinian economy was much damaged.
1993
In September 1993, the Oslo Accords, officially the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government, the first direct, face-to-face agreement between Israel and the Palestinians was signed in Washington. It had been worked out with great effort between Israel and the PLO in Oslo, without US mediation. Rabin and Arafat shook hands on the While House lawn. Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, signed for the PLO and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres for Israel. Arafat and the PLO leadership renounced violence and use of terrorism, and agreed to remove language from the PLO charter referring to the destruction of Israel. They were then allowed to return to Gaza. The Accords provided for the creation of the Palestinian Authority, an interim organization created to administer limited Palestinian self-governance and security and to be a negociating partner with Israel, and withdrawal of Israel from some areas of the West Bank and Gaza. Permanent issues such as Jerusalem, refugees, Israeli settlements in the area, security and borders were deliberately left to be decided at a later stage, with Arafat's agreement. Interim self-government was to be granted in phases. The final status agreement has yet to be concluded despite the Camp David 2000 Summit, the Taba summit, and the unofficial Geneva Accords. -- Rabin was very reluctant to shake Arafat's hand. This became the symbol of the ceremony and one of Clinton's proudest moments.
Militant Palestinians and right-wing Israelis undermined the agreement. Israeli settlements expanded rapidly and Palestinian terrorist attacks increased.
Rashid Khalidi says Oslo and subsequent agreements seemed to promise an independent Palestinian state and end Israel’s occupation, but the opposite happened. From 1991 to Jan 2001, the number of Israeli settlers doubled and the occupation was strengthened. At the same time, he says, the PLO had done nothing to prepare the Palestinian people for statehood: rule of law, constitutional system, balance of powers, etc.
In 1993 Yitzak Rabin and later Shimon Peres offered the Syrians full withdrawal, but Asad was not interested.
1994
In February 1994, Baruch Goldstein, an American-born doctor, who was a supporter of Rabbi Meir Kahane and a Major in the Israeli Defense Force, killed 30 Muslims as they prayed in the Tomb of Abraham mosque in Hebron. He was beaten to death. Kahane had founded the Jewish Defense League in the US and the Kach political party in Israel.
In July 1994, Yassir Arafat returned to Palestine after a 27 year exile. From Ramallah he ran the Palestinian Authority for the next decade as autocratically as he as he had the PLO.
In October 1994, Arafat, Rabin, and Peres shared the Nobel Peace Prize.
In October 1994 a peace agreement between Israel and Jordan was signed, ending 46 years of official hostility.
In September 1995, the “Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,” called "Oslo II", was signed in Taba in Egypt, and countersigned in Washington. It is an extensive and complicated document. Among its major provisions it calls for further Israeli troop redeployments beyond the Gaza and Jericho areas. Under the accord, Israel was first scheduled to re-deploy from the major Palestinian population centers in the West Bank and later from all rural areas with the exception of Israeli settlements and the Israeli-designated military areas. It also set elections for a president and council of the Palestinian Authority, which would govern the Palestinian population in the occupied territories.
The Interim Agreement of 1995 became the basis and reference point for subsequent negotiations and agreements such as the Hebron Protocol (1997) and the Wye River Memorandum (1998) and it is a basis for the Road map for Peace (2002)
Oslo was deliberately ambiguous, so that all sides could support it. It was intended to build trust and to permit recognition of the PLO, but it was hostage to extremists on both sides. The Accord crystallized the Israeli radical right, which meant to keep the occupied territory by any means.
Oslo was supposed to encourage the two sides to co-exist and build relations to theri mutual benefit.
Why did the Oslo agreement between Arafat and Rabin go wrong? Continued Arab violence, the expansion of Israeli settlements, and religious fanaticism on both sides. Shimon Peres said, “What we are trying to do is to turn an omelet into eggs.”
November 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated by an ultra-orthodox Israeli fanatic at a large rally at which Rabin had denounced violence and pledged to seek peace with the Palestinians. Shimon Peres became Prime Minister and tried to make Oslo permanent. He called for early elections, but Palestinian suicide bombings turned the voters against peace.
1996
In 1996 the first Palestinian Authority election was held. Arafat was elected President
In March 1996, Hamas launched a number of suicide bomb attacks inside Israel.
In May 1996, the conservative Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu was elected by a narrow margin, because of Arafat’s failure to stop terrorism. Otherwise, Peres would probably have won. As Prime Minister, he permitted an archaeological dig under base of Temple Mount, which inspired more violence.
1998
The 1998 Wye River, Maryland Memorandum was a political agreement on redeployment and security, negotiated to implement the Interim Agreement of September 1995 between Israel and the Palestinian authority. Further self-rule was promised, but Palestinian terrorism continued. Signing: Arafat, Clinton, Netanyahu. Observing: King Hussein of Jordan. 1999
In 1999, after several years of suicide bombings, Ehud Barak’s Labor party defeated Netanyahu, suggesting that most people wanted peace and compromise.
During the 1999 elections for Prime Minister 94% of all Arabs voted for Barak in hope that an Arab party would be included in the coalition agreement for Barak's government as a continuation of what had started with Yitzhak Rabin. However, Barak chose to form a broad government without consulting any Arab parties, a decision that deeply disappointed Israel's Arab community.
In May 2000, seven years after the Oslo Accords and five months before the start of the al-Aqsa Intifada, 39% of Israelis supported the Oslo Accords. A 2004 survey found that only 26% of Israelis still supported the Accords. -- Many Palestinians believed that the Oslo Accords had turned the PLO leadership into a tool of the Israeli state in suppressing their own people. While a small elite benefitted, the conditions of most Palestinians worsened. This was seen as one of the causes for the al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000.
In May 2000, after many years of harassment by Hezbullah guerillas, Israel withdrew completely from the Lebanon “security zone” except for the Shebaa Farms. Hezbullah continued to harass Israeli positions across the border and kidnapped several Israeli soldiers.
Barak, Clinton, Arafat and a dozen aids met for 14 days at Camp David in July 2000 for a Middle East Peace Summit. A great deal of sincere effort was put forth on all sides, some sessions lasting many hours. At times it appeared they were on the brink of a permanent peace treaty. Reluctantly, Barak offered far more than Rabin had offered in 1993, more than Israel ever had before. The West Bank would be contiguous and more than 90% of captured territory was to be returned, and all of Gaza, although the Israelis would continue to control the borders. Palestinian control over Eastern Jerusalem as the capital of the new Palestinian state. All refugees could apply for compensation of property from an international fund to which Israel would contribute along with other countries. When they later learned the details, the Israeli Right was outraged, but the majority of the people were not, if this was the price of genuine peace. Before any gradual Israeli withdrawal, all Palestinian terrorist infrastructure must be dismantled.
In the middle of the discussions, Arafat had claimed full Palestinian sovereignty of the Temple Mount and asserted that the Jewish Temple was a myth. "Solomon's Temple was in Nablus, not in Jerusalem." The world at large had offered citizenship to hundreds of thousands of refugees, but Arafat said no one could abolish the “right of return.”
In the end Arafat rejected the settlement. The Palestinians wanted the immediate withdrawal of the Israelis from the occupied territories, and only subsequently the Palestinian authority would crush all Palestinian terror organizations. The Israelis responed that they could not accept the demand for a return to the borders of June 1967 as a pre-condition for the negotiations.
Clinton praised Barak for his courage and vision and his sincere attempt to meet Israeli security needs while making peace possible.
Some things had been accomplished. Taboo subjects like Jerusalaem, borders, and refugees had finally been discussed. A Trilateral Statement defined principles to guide future negociations, based on UN Res 242 and 338.
Evaluations
An official close to Arafat said: “The PLO functioned like the Mafia. Through the 90’s, the PLO did nothing to prepare people for compromise. After the Israeli pullout from Lebanon in May of 2000, Arafat thought they were weakened and that he could do better than what Barak offered in September.”
Others have suggested, that Arafat just couldn’t deal with peace. He was a revolutionary who had made being a victim an art form. Most Palestinians were never told that Barak had offered them over 90% of Palestine. A supposedly well informed Palestinian journalist said, “You will never let us have a state. You will never end the occupation.”
Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard Law preofssor. said that the failure of the negotiations was due to "the refusal of the Palestinians and Arafat to give up the full right of return. That was the sticking point. It wasn't Jerusalem. It wasn't borders." He claimed that President Clinton told this to him "directly and personally."
Professor of political science Norman Finkelstein wrote that, judged from the perspective of Palestinians’ and Israelis’ respective rights under international law, all the concessions at Camp David came from the Palestinian side, none from the Israeli side.
Dennis Ross says that the lack of legitimacy among Arab leaders, that they are appointed not elected, makes them vulnerable and risk adverse and afraid to appear weak to their public.
Rashid Khalidi says Camp David was not a negotiation but a take-it-or-leave-it proposal by Barak, backed by Clinton, and that, for his part, Arafat was inept, unprepared, and incompetent.
In fact, the July talks continued until the end of September and continued to raise hopes. But on September 28, 2000 Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount to demonstrate Israeli’s continuing right to do this and that Israel could not surrender this sacred ground, and to increase his credibility with the Israeli right wing.
Israeli intelligence received hard evidence that the Palestinian Authority was planning a massive violent protest for the next day, Friday 29 September. The Israelis warned Arafat, but violence escalated from rock throwing to machine gun and mortar fire, suicide bombings, and ambushes. Rashid Khalidi says the Infitada began as a popular struggle but was soon militarized, with encouragement or failure to discourage of Arafat.
The Israelis say the al-Aqsa Intifada was not a popular uprising like the 1987 Infitada but was a planned assault. Arafat had decided he could not ahieve what he wanted through negociation. Arafat fomented anti-Israeli sentiment in the Palestinian media and schoolbooks. He promised the return of refugees to their former homes. It was claimed that gunmen were deployed in Palestinian crowds to fire of Israeli soldiers, who then fired back. On TV, imams urged their flocks to kill Jews. Independence must result from struggle.
A few days later 2 Israeli soldiers were murdered and mutilated in Ramallah. Israel had turned over responsibility for Joseph's Tomb in Nablus to Palestinian security, but the Palestinian police stood aside while a mob destroyed the synogogue.
Before Camp David in 2000, polls said that most Palestinians believed in coexistence, at least in vague terms. The suicide bombers were supported only by a minority. Hamas was easily outpolled by Fatah. That all ended with the second Infitada.
The Infitada had a devastating effect on Palestinian economy. More than 100,000 Palestinians had worked legally in Israel and up to a million worked without permits. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis shopped in the West Bank. Between the two Intifadas, life had briefly seemed almost normal. Women could appear in public without a veil and not be harassed. In September 2000 all contact ended. Arab East Jerusalem slowly strangled. The death toll for military and civilians between 2000-2004 was estimated to be 3,223 Palestinians and 950 Israelis. The Intifada wound down after the death of Arafat in 2004.
Israel’s Chief Rabbi said, “The Infitada has forced Israel into postures that are incompatible with our deepest ideals. Hatred and insensitivity are corrupting our culture. Closures, roadblocks, curfews, give the appearance of a whimsically repressive Israel.” President Clinton's December Parameters
The Clinton ideas presented on December 23, 2000 outlined the fundamental needs of each side, as guidelines for final acceleerated talks:
1) Territory: 94% to 96% of the West Bank for the Palestinian State; land swaps of 1% to 3%. 2) Security: Israelis gradually replaced in West Bank by International Force; 3 early-warning stations maintained, emergency deployments as agreed; Palestine a non-militarized state with strong security force. 3)Jerusalem: What is Arab should be Palestinian; what is Jewish should be Israel. Palestinian de facto control over the Haram, with international monitoring. 4) Refugees: No right of return to Israel; right of return to Palestinian homeland; some refugees could be absorbed into Israel by Israel's decision. 5) End of conflict and of all claims.
These ideas were supported by Mubarak of Egypt, Abdullah of Jordan, and the Crown Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia. Bandar said, "If Arafat does not accept what is available now, it won't be a tragedy, it will be a crime." Barak agreed with reservations. The Palestinians did not. "We cannot...accept a proposal that secures neither the establishment of a viable Palestinian state nor the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes." Arafat said no.
December 29 Barak's government formally accepted ideas that would divide East Jerusalem, end the IDF's presence in the Jordan Valley, and produce a PAlestinian state in roughly 97 percent of the West Bank and 100 percent of Gaza.
2001
In January 2001, in the last weeks of the Clinton Administration, peace talks were renewed perfunctorily at Taba in Egypt, from 97% of the West Bank was offered except for minor settlement blocks, with full compensation and safe passage to Gaza.
On the maps to the right, dark green (present Palestinian settlements) plus light green areas indicate the projected Palestinian state.
Violet is land annexed by Israel. Violet with horizontal stripes was the projected Israeli security zone.
The talks ended inconclusively.
The joint Israeli-Palestinian statemented concluded on a positive note: "The negotiation teams discussed four main themes: refugees, security, borders and Jerusalem, with a goal to reach a permanent agreement that will bring an end to the conflict between them and provide peace to both people...We leave Taba in a spirit of hope and mutual achievement, acknowledging that the foundations have been laid both in reestablishing mutual confidence and in having progressed in a substantive engagement on all core issues." The reality was a good deal less.
Shlomo Ben-Ami was Israel’s foreign minister at the time and took a leading part in these talks. His account of the talks was published in Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz on 14 September 2001. He says that Israel’s proposals to the Palestinians in the talk at Camp David and Taba included the following:
1) 97% territorial withdrawal: Israeli withdrawal from 97% of the territory of the West Bank and Gaza
Reactions to Taba
Israel’s supporters described this package as “very generous… the best that the Palestinians are ever likely to receive…” and said that it includes “basically everything that they wanted…”.
The Palestinians said that less land was offered than claimed and with insufficient territorial integrity; that they were hurried, that true negociations didn't take place, and that Clinton supported the Israelis.
In an open letter, Bill Clinton acknowledged the daily humiliations faced by Palestinians but said, “Nothing you have accomplished has been accomplished through violence. Now is the time for courageous leadership.” Palestinian newspapers hailed the end of the Clinton administration as “the end of the era of the Jewish lobby.”
A Hebrew University Professor said: “If the Palestinians were to stop the violence tomorrow, there is no question that Israel would stop its violence at once. But if Israel stops the violence tomorrow, there is no chance the Palestinians will stop theirs.”
A Palestinian academic said, “Even if we act like saints, Israel will continue the settlements and marginalize peaceful forces on the Palestinian side. If the assassinations would stop, so would the Infitada. Sharon has ordered the assassinations in order to end any possibility of peace.”
Rashid Khalidi says the most Israel offered was some return of unspecified numbers of Palestinians to a Palestinian state after its establishment, an offer later withdrawn by Sharon government.
The following exchange of opinions appeared in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz:
Point: “No terrorist threat is grounds for a wholesale annulment of our values; no suicide bombing can justify the daily killing of innocent people or large scale incarceration without trial or the absence of public discussion and the disregard of what’s going on in our backyard”
Counterpoint: “We don’t disregard what happens, but how deeply could the Israeli public, engrossed in its own struggle to stay alive, empathize with a population that told its pollsters it supported a strategy of murder to destroy the Jewish state?”
David Horowitz wrote in Still Life with Bombers: “As the 1990’s began, we had the right-wing Shamir, who’d seen his family murdered by their Christian neighbors in Poland, and whose overriding concern was not to weaken Israel by giving up territory. In 1992 we swung to the left, electing Rabin who promised to speed up the peace process. He was assassinated in 1995 and succeeded by the like-minded Peres. Buses were blown up, and we voted Peres out in 1996 for the hawkish Netanyahu. After 3 years of Bibi and more bombs we lurched to the left and elected Barak who promised permanent peace with Arafat. When that failed in 2000, we elected super hawk Ariel Sharon and re-elected him in 2003. Turnout in Israeli elections is always near 100%, and most conversation in cafes is about how to achieve peace, but we are never able to make up our minds whether to trust the Palestinians.”
Ariel Sharon becomes Prime Minister
In February 2001 Barak lost a special election to Likud’s hawkish Ariel Sharon, who rejected Oslo and promised peace through security.
In June 2001, the Dolphinarium Discotheque in Tel Aviv was hit by suicide bomb, killing 20, including many Russian Jewish teenagers. Islamic Jihad and Hezbullah both claimed credit.
2002
In March 2002 an Arab Peace Initiative was proposed by Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, at the Beirut Summit of the Arab League. Peace with Israel and normal relations in return for full Israeli withdrawal from all the Arab territories occupied since June 1967, Implementation of Resolutions 242 and 338, eatablishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. and a just solution to the refugee problem. Again endorsed at the Riyadh Summit in 2007.
Immediately afterwards there were Arab suicide bombings, and Israel responded vigorously. Sharon blamed Arafat and blockaded him in his headquarters in Ramallah. .
In June 2002, after a rash of suicide bombings Israel began building a “security fence.” or “separation barrier.” This had been proposed for a number of years. The fence has been effective in stopping suicide bombers. However: it suggests a border, which Israeli right didn’t want, even if generous to Israel. It walls-in 2 million Palestinians. Israel has a legal obligation to protect Jewish settlers beyond the border even when they don’t care for Israel.
Bush's June 2002 Speech
In On 24 June 2002, President Bush gave a speech outlining his vision for peacemaking, the first time the U.S. had publically supported the Two-State Solution. If the Palestinians reformed themselves, he called on Israel to end the occupation begon in 1967, implying roughly the 1967 borders. But reform was unlikely unless the Israelis relaxed their grip, which the Israelis would not do if it invited new attacks. The stalemate held. -- Arab leaders at this point were the first to call for a "road map".
A peace effort by Muslim, Jewish, and Christian clerics, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, failed because of death threats to the Muslims.
2003
Ariel Sharon The January 2003 overwhelming victory of Ariel Sharon and the Likud Party was a testament of despair and disillusion. In 2 1/2 years of the al Aksa Intifada, 700 Israelis and 2000 Palestinians had been killed. The Palestineian mainstream refused to legitimize Israel or confront violent extremists
Sharon was reelected in 200?.
In March 2003, Mahmoud Abbas was appointed the first Palestinian Prime Minister by Yasser Arafat. President George W. Bush text messaging in the background.
The Quartet In April 2003, subsequent to Abbas's appointment, the Quartet on the Middle East issued the Road Map for Peace. The Quartet was established in Madrid in 2002. It includes the European Union, the US, the UN, and Russia. It issued the “Road Map to Israeli-Palestinian Peace.”
The principles of the Road Map had been first outlined by President Bush in his speech in June 2002, in which he called for an independent Palestinian state living side by side with Israel, to be achieved in three phases: Phase I: An end to Palestinian violence; Palestinian political reform; Israeli withdrawal and freeze on settlement expansion; Palestinian elections. Phase II: An International Conference to support Palestinian economic recovery and launch a process, leading to establishment of an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders; revival of multilateral engagement on issues including regional water resources, environment, economic development, refugees, and arms control issues; Arab states restore pre-intifada links to Israel (trade offices, etc.) Phase III: A permanent status agreement and end of conflict; agreement on final borders, clarification of the highly controversial question of the fate of Jerusalem, refugees and settlements; Arab state to agree to peace deals with Israel. The proposed date for a permanent status agreement has been postponed indefinitely due to violence and accusations that both sides have not followed through on their commitments.
Palestinians agreed to the Road Map. Israel rejected key points.
Geneva Accord
The Draft Permanent Status Agreement, of December 2003 better known as the Geneva Accord or Geneva Initiative, was an extra-governmental and unofficial peace proposal meant to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It would give Palestinians almost all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and part of Jerusalem, drawing Israel's borders close to what existed before the 1967 war. In return for removing most of the Israeli settlements in those areas, the Palestinians would limit their "right of return" to Israel to a number specified by Israel and will drop all other claims and demands from Israel. Amongst its creators were Israeli politician Yossi Beilin, one of the architects of the Oslo accords, and former Palestinian Authority minister Yasser Abed Rabbo. Both noted that the Geneva accord doesn't oblige any of their respective governments, even though Abed Rabbo was a minister at the time of the signing. -- There was much world support for the initiative but little reaction from within Israel or Palestine.
The Cairo conference of Palestinian groups, first in 20 years, fails to agree on cease fire offer to Israel. Islamist movements say the PLO no longer represents the Palestinian people.
June 4, 2003 At the Aqaba Summit, Abu Mazen and Ariel Sharon vow to stop
violence, and end occupation according to the Road Map. Hamas and Islamic
Jihad vow to continue violence and join in killing four Israeli soldiers in Gaza.
2004
In November 2004 Yasser Arafat died. A public opinion poll in 2004 found that 87% of Palestinians believed Arafat's government was corrupt. 92% wanted sweeping reform. Mahmoud Abbas succeeded Arafat on his death. The Infitada wound down.
In January 2005, Mahmoud Abbas (also know as Abu Mazen, a Arab standard honorific meaning “Father of Mazen”) was elected President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), in an election boycotted by Hamas.
In September 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew all its settlers and soldiers and dismantled its military facilities in the Gaza Strip and four northern West Bank settlements. Israel maintained control of land. air, and sea borders..
A November 2005 A Palestinian Authority/Israeli agreement authorized the reopening of the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt under joint PA and Egyptian control.
2006
In January 2006, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke. He never regained consciousness. Ehud Olmert became acting Prime Minister.
Olmert, born in 1945 in Palestine, had previously been the Vice Prime Minister, Finance Minister, Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, and Minister responsible for the Israel Lands Administration, as well as Mayor of Jerusalem. -- Olmert has been severely criticised for the lack of success in the July 2006 war and has been accused of corruption.
Hamas wins the Palestinian Parliament
On January 25th, 2006 Palestinian legislative elections took place. Fatah lost its majority in the Palestinian parliament in an upset victory by Hamas. The Palestinian Authority had long been accused of corruption and incompetence. The Palestinian attorney general revealed that 700 million dollars in state funds had been squandered or stolen in the past few years. A Hamas-controlled government was formed.
In March 2006, after a parliamentary election, Ehud Olmert's Kadima Party remained the largest block. Olmert became Prime Minister.
Since March 2006, President Abbas has failed to negociate a political platform with Hamas acceptable to the international community and lift the economic siege on Palestinians. The PLC was unable to convene in late 2006 as a result of Israel's detention of many Hamas PLC members and Israeli-imposed travel restrictions on other PLC members.
The 2006 Lebanon War, Second Lebanon War, Summer War, or July War, took place from July to September 2006. Lebanese Hezbollah fighters fired rockets into Israel and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. Israel responded with massive air strikes and a 20 mile incursion. Hezbollah guerrilas resisted effectively and rocketed northern Israel. A million Lebanese and 1/2 million Israelis were displaced. There was much destruction in Lebanon, especially in southern Beirut. 1500 Lebanese and 100 Israelis were killed. The Israelis withdrew after 34 days, and Lebanese Army troops occuped southern Lebanon. Hezbollah was not disarmed and claimed victory.
The July War was a strategic defeat for Israel. Human Rights Watch blamed Israel for using excessive force and condemned Palestinians in less harsh terms. The War was said to have punctured the “myth of the Israeli invincibility.” -- But the war also caused a huge financial setback for Lebanon, with estimates of up to $15 billion in direct costs. Another casualty was the unity between Lebanon's sectarian and political groups.
2007
Early in 2007, in an attempt to resolve the financial and diplomatic impasse, the Hamas-led government, together with Chairman Abbas, agreed to form a unity government. Haniyeh resigned in February. The unity government was finally formed in March under Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and consisted of members from Hamas, Fatah and other parties and independents. In March 2007 a Palestinian unity government was formed incorporating members of both Hamas and Fatah, with Ismail Haniyeh as Prime Minister and independent politicians taking many key portfolios. In June 2007, Hamas fighters seized control of Gaza.
After the takeover by Hamas, Abbas dismissed the Hamas-led unity government of Prine Minister Haniyeh, declared a state of emergency, and appointed Salam Fayad Prime Minister to form a new government. Although the new government's authority is claimed to extend to all Palestinian territories, in effect it is limited to the Palestinian Authority controlled areas of the West Bank.
The Fayad government has won widespread international support. Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia said in late June 2007 that the West Bank-based Cabinet formed by Fayad was the sole legitimate Palestinian government, and Egypt moved its embassy from Gaza to the West Bank. Hamas, which has effective control of the Gaza Strip, faces international diplomatic and economic isolation. 73 per cent of Palestinians opposed the takeover, according to a poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Survey Research, in Ramallah.
Mahmoud Abbas fired the unity cabinet and appointed a Western-backed cabinet. Hamas refused to recognize the new government. Hamas has an image of being less corrupt than Fatah, which is why they won the elections in 2006, and why there remains a possibility that they could take over the West Bank as they took over Gaza.
Hamas and Fatah have been unable to foster a functioning economy or a civil society. They are mired in their power struggle and seem to have no common vision of what might be best for the Palestinian people. Palestinians today.
Today 5 million Palestinians live west of Jordan in four groups. 1) 1.2 million are citizens of Israel, 1/5th of the population. 2) 2 million live in the West Bank; 3) 1.3 million live in Gaza; 4) 1/4 million live in East Jerusalem . 4-6 million live outside of Palestine. 2-3 million have Jordanian passports.
Conclusion.
There is no conclusion. A friend of mine, an expert on the region who spoke both Hebrew and Arabic, who spent half of each year in Jerusalem, and who was writing a book on modern Israel at his death a few years ago, expressed his extreme discouragement. He did not see how the hate and violence could ever end. The vast majority of Israeli and Palestinian citizens have made it clear in many surveys that they would prefer peace and life at almost any cost, but that they have lost faith in the possibility.
It may be up to the rest of the Muslim and Western world to help both parties get back this faith, and yet it is only they who can do it. Dennis Ross emphasizes that only the parties involved can achieve peace, but he feels we can help in various ways, particularly by encouraging each side to consider what the other needs in order to achieve peace, not what they want or feel entitled to. One side's principle or "right" is usually the other side's impossibility. For the Palestinians to accept that there would be no "right of return" to Israel would be measure of their readiness to make peace. For Israel, it would be to begin to evacuate the settlements.
"As for the Israelis, genuine acceptance of their moral legitimacy could alter their continuing need for control. There are few in Israel who question the legitimacy of the Palestinian national movement. There are many who question whether the Arabs are willing to make peace." (Ross)
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Wright, Robin. Dreams and Shadows, the future of the Middle East. N.Y., The Penguin Press, 2008. 464p.
Studies of contemporary Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Morocco, and Iraq.
Cohen, Jared. Children of Jihad; a young American's travels anong the youth of the Middle East. N.Y. Gotham Books, 2007. 278p.
See also: Exile, a political, legal, and romantic thriller, by Richard North Paterson that presents a clear and even-handed picture contemporary Jewish and Arab suffering. As does The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew and the Heart of the Middle East, non-fiction by Sandy Tolan.
Oslo Accords
Baruch Goldstein
Liberal Jews were horrified by Goldstein's action, but his grave became a shrine for right-wing settlers. The shrine was dismantled by the Israeli government in 2000.
1995
Oslo II
Rabin Assassination
Wye River
2000
Camp David July 2000
Temple Mount Visit
al-Aksa Infitada
Shortly after the beginning of the Intifada a 12 year old Palestinian boy and his father were caught in a crossfire and the boy was killed.
Taba talks
2) Further 3% land swap: In exchange for keeping 3% of West Bank territory (containing the principal settlements) Israel would hand over a further 3% of territory from within pre-1967 Israel, to enable the Palestinians to argue that they had achieved the return of 100% of territories occupied since 1967
3) Independent Palestinian State: Israeli recognition of an independent Palestinian state on that territory, with agreed borders, and a peace treaty between that new state and Israel
4) East Jerusalem as Palestinian capital: The capital of the Palestinian state to be East Jerusalem, which would be a physically open but politically redivided city serving as the capital of both Israel and the Palestinian state
5) Claims of Palestinian refugees to be addressed – in part: Israel to accept a limited number of Palestinian refugees into Israel proper, under a scheme of family reunification, with rights of entry for Palestinian refugees into the new Palestinian state, and an internationally established compensation fund
6) The parties to agree an “end-to-the-conflict” declaration: Israel demanded that once the above package had been agreed the parties should enter into a comprehensive agreement which would confirm an “end to the conflict”, with each party renouncing all claims against the other.
In January 2002, the Israeli navy captured the Karine, a ship carrying 50 tons of advanced weapons from Iran for the Palestinian Authority.
Security Fence
The fence follows the 1967 borders but dips far into the West Bank at many points and isolates Palestinian communities. It is expected to be 400 miles in length when finished.
Mahmoud Abbas
2005
Ehud Olmert
Abbas leader Ismail Haniyeh was nominated as Prime Minister and sworn in in March. Israel, the United States, Canada, and the European Union froze all funds to the Palestinian Authority and refused to accept the Hamas-led government because it does not recognize Israel, will not renounce violence, and refuses to honor previous peace agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
July War
Hamas takes Gaza
Ross, Dennis. The Missing Peace: the inside story of the fight for Middle East Peace. N.Y. Farrar, 2004. 840p. Chief Mid-East negotiator under Bush I and Clinton. "There is little prospect of mediating any conflict if one does not understand the historical narratives of each side."
Oren. Michael B. Power, Faith, and Fantasy; America in the Middle East 1776 to the Present. N.Y., Norton, 2007. 778p. An Israeli/American Historian. From the Barbary pirates and Protestant missionaries in 19th c. Palestine to Camp David. Fascinating and enjoyable reading.
O'Brien, Connor Cruise. The Siege; the Saga of Israel and Zionism. N.Y., Simon and Schuster, 1986. 798p. A well-known Irish writer and diplomat. -- Covers from the 19th century to land-for-peace in the mid 1980’s. Readable, clear, mildly pro-Israel, and favorably reviewed. The best account in my opinion.
Segev, Tom. One Palestine, complete; Jews and Arabs under the British Mandate. N.Y. Holt, 1999. 612p. An Israeli writer.-- British made incompatible promises to both Jews and Arabs. Many Arab missteps. British leaders were pro-Zionist out of a mistaken notion of Jewish world power. Entertaining, full of information. Reviews are strongly pro or anti, and accuracy is criticized.
Gilbert, Martin. Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century. N.Y., Wiley, 1996. 412p. – Noted Jewish/British historian. Solid history. Favorably reviewed.
Horovitz. David. Still Life with Bombers; Israel in the age of terrorism. N.Y., Knopf, 2004. 266p. Israeli journalist. -- He says the root problems are misinformation, Arab terrorism, and mutual mistrust after Arafat rejected the 2000 Camp David offer. Clear presentation by a realistic Israeli dove.
Carter, Jimmy. Palestine Peace not Apartheid. NY, Simon and Schuster, 2006. 265p. – Over 600 customer reviews on Amazon, most favorable, some anti-Semitic. Strongly critiqued by Alan Dershowitz.
Khalidi, Rashid. The Iron Cage; the story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood. Boston, Beacon, 2006. Edward Said Chair of Arab Studies at Columbia. Failure to develop Palestinian state because of “Iron Cage” of British and failure of Palestinian leadership.
Peters, Joan. From time immemorial: the origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict over Palestine. N.Y., Harper, 1984. Whitehouse Advisor on the Middle East during the Carter Administration. Well reviewed and then trashed. Strongly pro-Zionist. Main points are that Jews were never treated well in Arab lands, and there was extensive Arab immigration into Palestine in the early 20th century.