Israeli-Arab Negotiations: Background, Conflicts, and U.S. Policy

After the first Gulf war, in 1991, a new peace process involved bilateral negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon with mixed results. Milestones included the Israeli-Palestine Liberation Organization PLO Declaration of Principles of September 13, 1991, providing for Palestinian empowerment and some territorial control, the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty of October 26, 1994, and the Interim Self-Rule in the West Bank or Oslo II accord of September 28, 1995, which led to the formation of the Palestinian Authority PA to govern the West Bank and Gaza. However, Israeli-Syrian negotiations were intermittent and difficult, and postponed indefinitely in 2000. Negotiations with Lebanon also were unsuccessful, leading Israel to withdraw unilaterally from south Lebanon on May 24, 2000. President Clinton held a summit with Israeli and Palestinian leaders at Camp David on final status issues that July, but they did not produce an accord. A Palestinian uprising or intifadah began in September. On February 6, 2001, Ariel Sharon was elected Prime Minister of Israel, and rejected steps taken at Camp David and afterwards. The post 911 war on terrorism prompted renewed U.S. focus on a peace process, emphasizing as its goal a democratic Palestinian state as a precondition for achieving peace. On April 30, 2003, the United States, the United Nations, European Union, and Russia presented a Roadmap to Palestinian statehood within 3 years. It has not been implemented by either Israel or the Palestinians. PA ChairmanPresident Yasir Arafat died on November 11, 2004 on January 9, 2005, Mahmud Abbas was elected to succeed him and he seeks final status talks. Since Hamas, which Israel and the United States consider a terrorist group, won the January 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, however, the situation has been complicated.