25 Years Since Oslo: An Insider’s Account

When a leader of one country considers whether the time is ripe to commence peace negotiations with the leader of an enemy, there are two important questions that the leader must consider: Is the other leader willing to make the sacrifices necessary to attain peace? Is that leader strong enough to make those sacrifices and enforce the deal internally, that is, is he capable? The answer to both of these questions must be ‘yes.’ A willing but incapable leader is as bad for reaching a peace treaty as a capable but unwilling leader.

Issues and Analyses|September 2018

The Arab-Israeli Peace Process, 1999

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…

Israel-PLO Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA), September 9, 1993

On September 9, 1993, four days before Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo Accords on the White House Lawn, Israel and the PLO signed mutual recognition Letters. Joel Singer, who significantly assisted the negotiation of both the MRA and the Oslo Accords, as well as earlier agreements with Egypt, recalled that the MRA was “a massive leap forward in Israeli-Palestinian relations.”

Issues and Analyses|September 9, 1993