The IsraeliPalestinian Conflict

1
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

• From Oslo to the Road Map

2
The Setting

• Desert Storm
• January 1991
• International coalition, acting under a UN
  Security Council mandate, unite to expel Iraq
  from neighboring Kuwait

3
Iraq and the Palestinians

• Saddam Hussein attempts to link his fight against
  the U.S.-led coalition to the Israeli-Palestinian
  conflict.
• PLO, led by exile leader Yasir Arafat, embraces
  Husseins efforts to link the two conflicts.

4
Waning Support for PLO

• PLO alignment with Hussein undermines
  international support for the Palestinian cause.
• Hamas (a.k.a. The Islamic Resistance Movement)
  and other Islamist groups increasingly competed
  with the PLO for leadership of the Palestinian
  cause.

5
Madrid Peace Conference

• U.S. President George H. W. Bush embarked on a
  series of efforts to alleviate the wider
  Arab-Israeli conflict.
• Convened an international conference in 1991 in
  Madrid.
• Two tracks
• Multilateral track
• Bi-lateral track

6
Israel, Jordan, and the PLO

• Israel had a longstanding policy of refusing to
  meet with official representatives of the PLO.
• Problem overcome by including Palestinian
  representatives in a joint Jordanian-Palestinian
  delegation.

7
Slow Going in Madrid

• The initial months of the Madrid Conference
  produced few results.
• PLO leadership in Tunis took positions that made
  it difficult for the parties to make progress on
  substantive issues.

8
Israeli Elections and the Start of the Oslo
Process

• Madrid Conference begun under Israeli Prime
  Ministers Yitzhak Shamirs Likud Government.
• Right-wing Likud has traditionally been more
  hesitant about peace with the Palestinians than
  left-wing Labor party.
• 1992 Labor, led by Yitzhak Rabin, defeats
  Shamirs Likud government and forms a government.
• Rabins government did not include Likud.

9
The Oslo Back Channel

• The PLO initiated secret talks in Oslo, Norway
  aimed at outlining a peace agreement with two
  Israeli academics with links to the governing
  Labor party.
• These talks quickly evolved into the official
  peace talks between Israel and the PLO.

10
Oslo I and II

• 1993 Israel and the PLO sign the Declaration of
  Principles in Washington.
• Exiled PLO leadership permitted to return to the
  Occupied Territories and form a government with
  limited powers.
• Palestinian police were deployed, PLO ran
  schools, Palestinian doctors took over health
  care responsibilities.
• Few of the targets set in Oslo I were met on time.

11
Israeli and Palestinian Extremists Respond

• Opponents of the peace undertook efforts to halt
  the process.
• 1995 Yitzhak Rabin Assassinated by Jewish
  Student with ties to the settler movement.
• Hamas initiates campaign of terror that
  undermines Labors claims about the fruits of the
  peace process.
• 1996 Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahus Likud party
  defeats Labor

12
The Peace Process Stalls

• Under Netanyahu, the Peace Process stalls.
• Netanyahu reimposed harsh restrictions on
  Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
• Missed numerous deadlines contained in the Oslo
  agreements.

13
Restarting the Peace Process

• May 1999 Labor regains power.
• Ehud Barak becomes Prime Minister.
• Barak completed many of the troop withdrawals
  called for by the Oslo agreements.
• Barak also permits settlement expansion in
  Occupied Territories.

14
The Failure at Camp David

• Baraks strategy was to abandon the incremental
  approach espoused in the Oslo agreements for an
  all-at-once solution consummated at Camp David.
• Final Status negotiations would tackle the most
  difficult questions in the Israeli-Palestinian
  Conflict.
• Status of Jerusalem.
• Right of return for Palestinian refugees.
• Right of Palestinians to declare a state on the
  West Bank and Gaza.

15
The Status of Jerusalem
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Palestinian Refugees (as of 1995)
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Israeli Settlements on the West Bank (1972-1992
20
Camp David

• Barak made a number of important compromises at
  Camp David, including an agreement to divide
  control over Jerusalem and to provide a limited
  right of return to Palestinian refugees.
• Arafat made few concessions and offered little in
  the way of proposals that could be used to bridge
  differences between the two sides.
• In the end, the Camp David talks failed because
  of the parties could not agree on who would have
  sovereignty over the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif

21
Ariel Sharon takes over

• Sharon, a tough General with a reputation as a
  strong Israeli nationalist, defeats Barak and
  becomes the Israeli Prime Minister.
• Likud replaces Labor as the majority party.
• Sharon refuses to negotiate with the
  Palestinians, whom he describes as disinterested
  in peace there is no partner.

22
Second intifada

• Sharons election coincides with the start of an
  uprising in the Occupied territories the second
  such uprising to occur.
• The second intifada is marked by an intense wave
  of suicide bombings and Israeli military
  reprisals.

23
The Security Barrier

• Convinced that the Palestinians do not want peace
  and also convinced of their inability to stop
  suicide attacks, Sharon advances the idea of
  separating the Israeli populace from their
  Palestinian neighbors through the construction of
  a security barrier.

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