In the Six Day War in 1967 surrounding Arabs states had many resistance groups, which became known as the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Another resistance group called Al- Fatah began raiding Israel. Israel decided to attack first. The Israelis had taken another victory and some more land. It gained Sinai, Gaza Strip, West Bank, the Arab Quarter of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. This increased their land by three and a half times. Also it gained 'natural frontiers' which made it easier to defend their land. The Arabs on the other hand lost many men and military equipment. A bigger refugee problem and more Palestinians under Israeli control. This caused the 1993 peace agreement because the Arabs had lost the support of the Palestinians; they had put their trust in the P.L.O and had even more Palestinians under Israeli control. The Israelis were now surrounded by enemies and had gained an enemy, the P.L.O.
Another event that caused the 1993 Peace agreement was the building of Israeli settlements on captured Arab land. More Jewish people immigrated to Israel and the settlements were built in the West Bank and Gaza. The West Bank was an important area of ancient Israel. Also the Israelis controlled the city of Jerusalem. Many Israeli's thought that the Arabs that remained in Israel should be treated as second-class citizens. These settlements continued to be built through the 1970's even against the will of Israel's allies. This gave the Israel some security and they built them for religious reasons. This would have quite greatly caused the 1993 Peace Agreement because the Palestinian Arabs were treated as second-class citizens and lost land, whereas the Israeli's secured land and gained even more Jewish citizens.
In 1993 Prime Minister Rabin of Israel and Yasser Arafat Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation or P.L.O signed a peace agreement. This gave the Israeli’s security and the Palestinian’s land or automany but from 1993 to the present day there have been many short-term events, which has caused the collapse of the 1993 Peace Agreement.
The assassination of Prime Minister Rabin of Israel. He was killed by a Jew, which showed that the Israeli people were not happy with what he was doing with Israel.
In 1996 Islamic extremists launched a double suicide attack in Israel on two buses. Peres, the new Prime minister, stopped all contact with Yasser Arafat and threaten to retaliate. This was a big blow to the peace agreement as Arafat had promised security and had not shown any results of doing this. The Islamic extremists group was called Hamas. This scared the people of Israel and they changed their minds on what they wanted and decided on a tougher leader. This new leader was Binyamin Netanyahu who took over the Likud party. He opposed the peace process and distrusted the P.L.O. He feared for the Israeli’s security and was unwilling to give up any Israeli-controlled land.
In 1997, two suicide bombs killed 12 Israelis. Netanyahu condemned Arafat saying that he was not cracking down on the Palestinian terrorists. This again caused fear in the Israelis and also they questioned Netanyahu’s promises.
In the 1999 elections a man called Ehud Barak won. He was a tough yet willing to compromise with the Palestinians. He was going to give them 60% of the West bank. None of the Arab Jerusalem would be given also no Palestinian refugees were allowed back. These refugees were the ones from the 6-day war and the 1947 war.
In 2000 the people of both nations were not happy, the Israelis noticed that Mr. Barak had almost the same attitude as the despised predecessor, Netanyahu. He has built more settlements on occupied territories. Mr. Barak’s final offer was to make a Palestinian state, north and south of Jerusalem. This was only slightly better than Netanyahu’s offer.
Again the Israeli’s changed views and decided to vote in a new leader called Sharon, he was very anti-Palestinian.
The leaders of Israel and Palestine have both lost support from their people and Israel is on the brink of war.
This is why the 1993 peace agreement failed and why Israel is constantly in fear of attack. There will be no future plans for peace as they are never happy about each other’s view on what should happen.
