Israel


Palestine

The Summit
(July 12, 2000)

"Sheer guts," that's what U.S. President Clinton says both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat have.

He says it wasn't easy for either leader to agree to come to the current Mid East Peace summit and both should be admired for taking part.

Barak has had to face angry opponents at home who tried to bring down his government because he agreed to come to the talks. They fear he'll give in too easily to the demands of the Palestinians.

A Big Agenda

The men will meet at a camp-- but this will not be just any summer camp.

They'll meet at the U.S. presidential retreat of Camp David in the Maryland mountains beginning Tuesday for an open-ended peace summit.

There's a lot at stake. The two parties will try to settle disputes over the future of the city of Jerusalem, the status and borders of Palestinian areas and the treatment of Palestinian refugees.

A Complex Tragedy

Simply put, both the Israelis and the Palestinians feel they have the right to the same land. Both consider the same soil their homeland.

The Jews have an ancient and deep-felt attachment to Palestine, which spans over 5,000 years. As a people they have been exiled many times, retaining their culture, but lacking a homeland.

One of the hills of ancient Jerusalem was called Zion-- that's why the desire of the Jewish people for a homeland is often referred to as Zionism.

At the end of World War II in 1945 the world found out the full extent of the tragedy of the holocaust-- Adolf Hitler's attempt to wipe out the Jews.

The loss of life and damage suffered by the Jewish people helped develop support for their postwar plan to establish a homeland.

The Jewish people-- including some who moved to Palestine before the war and others scattered around the world-- declared independence for a Jewish state, Israel, on May 4, 1948.

The Soviet Union and the United States immediately recognized Israel. The British, who had been governing the region since the end of the Ottoman Empire during World War I, announced the end of their mandate in Palestine the next day.

To many Jews throughout the world, the State of Israel symbolizes the hopes and aspirations of the Jews as a people. But while the Jewish people found a home, the Palestinians who had lived there found themselves in the middle of immediate hostility between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

To its neighbors, Israel is seen as an outside entity that has established itself by force on Arab soil.

Israel has been fighting its neighbors over borders, cities and water for decades. There have been major conflicts between Israeli and various Arab forces in 1948-49, 1956, 1967, 1973, and 1982.

In 1967 Israel captured the West Bank of the River Jordan from the Kingdom of Jordan and much of the city of Jerusalem.

Israeli governments have since encouraged Jews to settle in these areas, which they regard as Israeli by right.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled into exile. At present Palestinian refugees are thought to number more than 3.5 million.

Why Can't I Find Palestine on the Map?

Palestine is not a country and never has been one. It's an area of the eastern Mediterranean, comprising parts of modern Israel and Jordan. Part of the region is also known as the Holy Land and is held sacred by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. (You can click on the map for more detail.)

The area has immense strategic importance: through it pass the main roads from Egypt to Syria and from the Mediterranean to the hills beyond the Jordan River. Water is scarce in the region making fresh water resources critical to survival.

The struggle of Palestinians for a homeland of their own received immediate support in the Arab world. An Arab summit meeting in Cairo in 1964 led to the formation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The PLO is made up of several Palestinian groups and claims to be the sole representative of all Palestinian people. A Palestine National Council (PNC) was established to serve as the supreme body, or parliament, of the PLO.

The PLO's basic principles and goals included the right to an independent state, the total liberation of Palestine, and the destruction of the State of Israel. These openly hostile goals only made the tension worse.

The period which followed the formation of the PLO was marred by acts of terrorism by Palestinian factions and an uprising in the 1980s by the inhabitants of the Israeli occupied West Bank.

But the final weeks of 1988 opened a new chapter in Palestinian-Israeli relations. In December, the PLO's current leader, Yasser Arafat, recognized Israel as a state in the region and condemned and rejected terrorism paving the way for the current peace process.

Behind Schedule

During secret talks in Oslo in 1993, Arafat accepted a peace plan that called for Israel to withdraw from some areas and future negotiations.

But Israeli leaders have been reluctant to give up the land while Palestinian militants have attempted to revive the armed struggle against Israel.

The United States is an enthusiastic supporter of the Oslo process, but because of its close relationship with Israel it's been difficult for it to play its role as the peace process' main sponsor and facilitator.

On November 4, 1995, Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir, an orthodox Jewish student opposed to Israeli withdrawals from the occupied West Bank.

Rabin had been a skillful negotiator and his loss was sorely felt.

Rabin's assassination is only one of the complications and crises which have put the peace process behind schedule.

The Wye Agreement

The last summit between Israel and the Palestinians was held in October of 1999.

Israel agreed to turn over an additional 13 percent of the occupied West Bank of the Jordan to the Palestinians in exchange for security guarantees.

Despite the agreement, little has been done since to implement the so-called Wye Accords, named for the rural Maryland retreat where the discussions took place.

As part of the agreement, both sides committed themselves to reach what's known as a final peace accord within a year after the start of another round of negotiations. Those talks would address the most difficult issues, including permanent Israeli-Palestinian borders, the rights of refugees and the final status of Jerusalem.

Is Peace Possible?

So can the Israelis and Palestinians reach a final settlement before a mutually agreed deadline of September 2000? Will an orderly Israeli withdrawal bring peace between Israel and all its neighbors?

The two sides are still far apart on the main issues.

The Israelis say there will be no return to pre-1967 borders, as the Palestinians are demanding. They want to see the city of Jerusalem united and under their control. (Palestinians want the entire Jordan Valley west of the river.)

Israel also wants to be able to control the areas where most of the Jewish settlers live in the West Bank and Gaza.

And Israel does not want moral or legal responsibility for the Palestinian refugee problem.

These are complex issues and both sides are deeply attached to their positions.

But there's a new generation in charge in some key Arab countries and the economic benefits of peace would be greater than ever in today's global world.

Both sides have much to play for.

Stay tuned for developments.

What do you think? How do you respect the rights of two communities who want the same territory?

Past top stories...

A discussion on the current summit (07/06/00)

Browse NewsHour Middle East Background Reports

Israel departs from Lebanon (05/26/00)

Israelis evacuate southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation (05/24/00)

Progress from the first round of Israeli-Syrian peace talks (01/10/00)