By 1978 the thirty-year war that had been fought between Egypt and Israel had come to a point where there was a chance for peace. The area that had been at the centre of the turmoil was the West Bank of the Jordan River and the Gaza Strip. The problem was that both countries believed that they had the rights to this land: Israel, biblically and Egypt, politically. The Israeli Prime Minister – Yitzak Rabin and Yasser Arafat met for talks which led to an understanding between the two nations. The meeting was so that the framework of a peace agreement, known as the Camp David Accord, could be laid out between Sadat and Begin, with Carter as the mediator. President Carter invited both President Sadat of Egypt and Menecham Begin to Camp David to work out a permanent peace agreement. Both Sadat and Begin had their reputations and their countries futures on the line, not to mention the future of the Middle East. All of the countries neighbouring Egypt and Israel would be affected by an Egyptian/Israeli agreement of any kind and maybe encouraged to come to an agreement of some sort for that region.
Before the Camp David agreement, Israel saw the PLO as terrorists and the PLO refused to recognise the Israeli state – they wanted to destroy it. The Camp David Agreement aimed to change these views.
Signed in 1978, the historic Camp David Agreement was supposed to usher in a new era of peace between Israel and Egypt. The accord illustrated how this global and regional balance of power has superseded traditional territorial conquests in the Middle East region, raising hopes that diplomatic channels could help bring about an elusive peace.
In March 1979, the peace treaty, better known as the Egyptian Israeli Peace Pact, was completely finished and was finally signed. The desired result of the treaty was to bring the war atmosphere to an end, and to establish peace where everyone could live safely.
The treaty asked that Israel withdrew from Arab lands, under the circumstances that the Arab population accepts the existence of Israel. Egypt and Israel were almost positive that the treaty would resolve all of their problems relating to order. It was agreed that Israeli troops would be withdrawn from Gaza and Jericho on the West Bank. Elections were held for a Palestinian Council or authority to run the West Bank and Gaza for 5 years. Within a year, Israeli troops were withdrawn from the stated places. The elections were held and the PLO won the majority of the seats. By 1997, Israeli troops had also withdrawn from the West Bank.
However, this was not the end of the violence and problems between the Palestinians and the Jews. The Camp David Agreement did not satisfy everyone.
Further peace agreements continued between Yasser Arafat and Yitzak Rabin and in 1993 another peace agreement was signed.
In November 1995 over 100,000 Israelis gathered for a peace rally. The main speaker was Yitzak Rabin who had signed the peace deal in 1993. As Rabin gave his speech, a young Israeli stood up and shot the Prime Minister. This killed the leader on the way to hospital. The assassin was a member of an Israeli group that opposed any peace with the Palestinians. This group had strong beliefs that the West Bank was part of the Land of Israel which they believed had been promised to the Jews by God. In their view, Rabin was a traitor to his country and religion.
The death of Rabin meant that a new government was elected and unlike Yitzak Rabin, this government opposed ay further negotiations with Arafat and the Palestinian authority.
With this new government in charge, the peace agreements were disposed of and there appeared to be no chance for peace as extremist activity on both sides was on the rise and the second Intifada began in 2000.
The second Intifada was triggered by underlying causes that had been around for a while. This included the millions of Palestinians living in refugee camps and relying on Un hand-outs. On the West Bank, the Palestinians outnumbered the Israelis by a great amount yet the Israelis controlled over 70 per cent of the land and had complete control over water and electricity supplies.
Peace between the Israel and Palestine appeared more distant than ever yet US President Bill Clinton tried to revive the peace process. He invited the Israeli and the PLO leaders back to Camp David for peace talks yet the obstacles were far too great to overcome. The talks ended with no significant progress made in terms of creating peace. The death tolls in the Middle East showed no signs of slowing down and so in 2003 US President George W. Bush published a ‘road map’ for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. America were about to invade Iraq and bring down Saddam Hussein and he was keen to show that not only was he concerned about the oil-rich Iraq, but also about the Palestinian problem. The road map outlined a step by step timetable which would enable both nations to be clear of what needed to be done to achieve a small degree of peace.
To begin with, the road map made little difference and deaths in the Middle East continued to rise and bombings continued.
However, over the next two years, the peace process appeared to be revived. In April 2004, the Israeli governments announced that it would evacuate all Jewish settlers and troops from Gaza. Then in November 2004, Yasser Arafat died and Mahmoud Abbas took his place and became Chairman of the PLO and was elected President of the Palestinian Authority. In February of the next year, Abbas persuaded Palestinian militants to call a halt to their bombing, even if it was only temporary. The Israeli and Palestinian leaders then met in Egypt and announced a mutual ceasefire and the summer of that year saw the Jewish settlers and troops were withdrawn from Gaza.
Despite this movement to regain peace in the Middle East, there are still many obstacles that need to be overcome in order to gain peace in the Middle East in this day and age.
Some of these obstacles include:
- The 4 million Palestinian refugees who are still living in camps.
- Control of suicide bombings committed by young Palestinians.
- Preventing Israelis from retaliating using military force. i.e. in the event there is a suicide bombing which kills a few Israelis.
- The overpopulation of Israel is causing more Jews to settle on Palestinian lands.
- Israelis building a wall along pre 1967 border to keep out the Palestinians and use this wall as a security barrier.
Many of the peace agreements have often begun to work yet have stalled when people form either side begin to grow impatient and kill the opposing side or the leader steps down from his position and the new leader is not willing to discuss peace negotiations. At the heart of the peace talks are the extremists on both sides who need to be controlled and prevented from causing to much damage to the opposing side.
Until peace between Israel and Palestinians is secure, the threat of terrorism will remain not only within these countries, but also worldwide. The fight between Israel and Palestine is more of a fight for their beliefs and their holy lands which many people around the world feel very strongly about, and will not rest until an agreement has been reached which allows both sides to have access to their holy land without the threat of violence.
