Kenneth W. Stein, “The Arab-Israeli Peace Process,” Middle East Contemporary Survey, Vol. XXIII, 2000, Bruce Maddy-Weitzman (ed.), Westview Press, pp. 48-76.
For some aspects of Arab-Israeli relations and negotiations, the beginning and end of 1999 were starkly opposite. Both moved from stagnation and disdain to movement and, in some cases, even reluctant embrace. However, despite a year-end betterment in Arab-Israeli negotiations, and some improvement in bilateral Arab-Israeli relations, distinctive Arab voices were heard throughout the year opposing Israeli legitimacy and the pace of Arab normalization of relations with the Jewish state. Some constants for the year were as they were in previous years: Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak remained Yasser Arafat’s single most important adviser, the dominant American role in Arab-Israeli negotiations did not change, Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon periodically poked at Israel’s presence, and Jordanian-Israeli relations remained relatively stable. Israelis and their Arab negotiating counterparts continued as they had since the 1991 Madrid Middle East Peace Conference in bilateral and direct negotiating processes. No effort was made to move from implementing incremental steps to reaching for something broader, namely a comprehensive Palestinian-Israeli agreement. Likewise, no consideration was given nor discussion heard about convening a broader comprehensive negotiating approach where all Arab sides would meet with the Israelis at a major conference to resolve outstanding differences. Parochial Palestinian and Syrian territorial interests took precedence over a broader pan-Arab mechanism of negotiations with Israel. Throughout the year, peaceful Arab-Israeli relations remained an elusive objective, but the negotiating process was significantly more active on more fronts on the eve of the millennium than when 1999 began.
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