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On Golan Heights, Israel agrees to limited withdrawal; UN places forces between Syrian and Israeli armies. With few exceptions this border remains almost totally quiet for more than forty years.

As part of the US negotiating team, Indyk enumerates why talks faltered after nine months. He asserts Israeli settlement activity undermined Palestinian trust for Israel. He also blames Palestinian indecision.

As the first Canadian Prime Minister to address the Knesset, Harper asserts Canada’s long-time friendship with Israel. Two days later, Canada signs a strategic cooperation agreement with Israel.

In Jerusalem, Obama affirms the bonds in the US-Israeli relationship, praises Israel’s democracy, calls for Israelis to support a democratic Palestinian state, and Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

Netanyahu devotes the bulk of his speech to the Iranian threat, its desire to acquire a nuclear weapon, and its sponsorship of terrorism internationally. He speaks proudly of the US-Israeli relationship.

As a negotiating plan it seeks an end to the conflict with reciprocal performance objectives. Israel accepts the plan with some reservations; Hamas rejects it out of hand. The plan is not enacted.

Four days before signing the Oslo Accords, the PLO and Israel recognize each other. Israel’s
Rabin worries about the growth of Hamas influence, thus elevates the PLO through international recognition.

After the 1991 Gulf War, the US orchestrates a conference with Israel, multiple Arab states, and Palestinians participating; the conference leads to bilateral and multilateral negotiations.

Kerry reaffirms that the US-Israeli relationship as an “unshakable bond” and calls for a two-state solution. He promises that the US will “never allow” Iran to gain a nuclear weapon.

Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and Palestinian leader Abbas meet in Washington to ‘kick start’ negotiations by implementing previous promises; the US is to judge performance to see if a treaty can result. It does not.

From an Arab summit, the initiative is revised several times since; it calls for normalization of relations with Israel, Israel’s withdrawal to the 1967 lines, but states an imprecise resolution of the refugee issue.

Following two weeks of Israeli-Hamas fighting, it calls for a cease-fire, and for a “lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by peaceful means.” The Hamas-Israeli war occurs again in 2013-2014.

US endorses application of UN Resolution 242 to the West Bank and Gaza, and seeks Palestinian
control over land and resources, and for the territories to be affiliated with Jordan.

It calls for “recognition of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, a just solution to the
Palestinian problem, the right to self-determination, [and] for PLO association to the negotiations.”

After trying but not succeeding in having PLO leader Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Barak reach an understanding at Camp David in August 2000, he offers a US view of a final status agreement near the end of his term in office.

With Israeli-Palestinian talks in a hapless state, President Clinton rejuvenates them. In the Arafat-Netanyahu agreement Israel shares Hebron, with the CIA playing a role in West Bank security.

There is a major, and unfounded, underlying assumption behinds calls for Israel to accept Hamas’s conditions: that Hamas is genuinely motivated by its responsibility for the welfare of Gazans.

Without any consultation with Jerusalem, Israel rejects US proposal for full withdrawal.

Further reinforcing the Truman Doctrine, the US President promises military or economic aid to any Middle Eastern country resisting Communist aggression.

One of four agreements Israel signed in 1949 with Arab neighbors, it does not end “state of war,” between Israel and Arab states. No treaty is signed until 1979.

The resolution states that refugees “wishing to return to their homes and live at peace (with Israel) should do so or compensation be paid…” Israel opposes the idea because it jeopardizes Israel as a majority Jewish state.

Fearing Communist penetration of the Eastern Mediterranean, Truman at the beginning of the Cold War defines the region as a sphere of US national interest.

Circumventing the existing law on prohibition of land sales to Jews, Palestinian Arabs are found selling lands regularly and furtively to Zionists.

Located in Jerusalem, the Central Zionist Archives has a vast array and amount of materials pertaining to modern Jewish history and particularly the history of modern Zionism. There are files dealing with all aspects of the modern Zionist enterprise, Zionist history in eastern and western Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere.  The files go back […]

Established in 1920, the League of Nations evolved out of the Paris Peace Conference. One of its objectives was to assist former territories evolve to self-government through Mandates. In the Middle East there were British Mandates for Palestine and Iraq  and a French Mandate for Syria/Lebanon. Annually the League reviewed the political status of each Mandate through reports […]

In the public realm, testimony given in hearings before US Congressional Senate and House committees is among the best that can be obtained. Habitually the staffs of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee recruit articulate and sensible practitioners and analysts. The aim is to provide legislators with informed and current […]

Just as al-Qaeda seeks the total destruction of western democracies, Hamas seeks Israel’s total demise. Since its inception in 1988, Hamas has been crystal clear about its opposition to Zionism and Israel.

  Assembled by Ken Stein, Emory University and Center for Israel Education Today in Israeli History, Center for Israel Education, https://israeled.org/israeli-history/ Elliot Abrahms, “Why Did Hamas Provoke A War?” Center for Foreign Relations Blog. July 09, 2014. http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/2014/07/09/why-did-hamas-provoke-a-war/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eabrams+%28Elliott+Abrams%3A+Pressure+Points%29 Yaacov Amidor, “The War with Hamas: Decision Time Approaching.” BESA Center. July 24, 2014. http://besacenter.org/uncategorized/war-hamas-decision-time-approaching/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=war-hamas-decision-time-approaching Benny Avni, […]

Assembled by Ken Stein, Emory University and Center for Israel Education Geoffrey Aronson, “Palestine at the Center of Israel-Turkey Trade.” Middle East Institute. June 24, 2014. http://www.mei.edu/content/article/palestine-center-israel-turkey-trade Guy Bechor, “Israel Needs Massive Fence on Eastern Border.” Ynet News. June 29, 2014. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4535034,00.html David Brog, “The End of Evangelical Support for Israel? The Jewish State’s International […]

As it has in the past Hamas may accept a tahdi’a or calming down of tensions, or even a temporary truce or hudna, negotiated by a third party, but for it to accept Israel as a reality is totally contrary to its ideological outlook.