Since its establishment in 1948, the State of Israel has sought peace with its neighbours through direct negotiations. Until the 1991 Madrid Conference, only Egypt had accepted Israel's offer to negotiate face-to-face. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat accepted Prime Minister Begin's invitation for dialogue, and the two countries embarked on historic bilateral negotiations which led to the 1978 Camp David Accords and the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace treaty. Since then, peace has prevailed on their mutual border and cooperation between the two states is growing.

 

In May 1989, Israel presented a new peace initiative. The breakup of the Soviet Union and the Gulf War produced a change in the basic political order of the Middle East, prompting the Arab world to reassess its attitude toward Israel and to enter into negotiations to build a new future for the Middle East.

In October 1991, a conference was convened in Madrid to inaugurate direct peace talks. Subsequently, bilateral negotiations were conducted between Israel and Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinians, as well as multilateral talks on key regional issues. These talks culminated in the signing of a Treaty of Peace between Israel and Jordan on October 26, 1994, and a series of interim agreements with the Palestinians.

 

The failure of the Camp David Summit in July 2000 virtually brought an end to bilateral peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians for seven years. In 2007, talks were resumed under the framework of the Roadmap for a permanent two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict put forward by US President George Bush.

 

Although Israel had made a tentative peace with its neighbours to the North and West, trouble within its borders remained. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, many displaced during the 1948 and 1967 wars, were living in camps in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

 

 Late in 1987, a general uprising began in the camps and surrounding areas. The Intifada, as it was known, was marked with day after day of clashes between stone-throwing Palestinians and Israeli soldiers. As the protests continued, diplomatic efforts were making tentative headway. In 1988, the Palestinian National Council accepted a U.N. partition, Israel's right to exist and renounced terrorism. The move sparked a new dialogue with the U.S. about becoming more involved in the peace process. Meanwhile, the Israeli government of Yitzhak Shamir proposed a form of self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza.

 

Both manoeuvres opened the path to the first major all-party summit. The 1991 Madrid conference, organized by the U.S. and the Soviet Union, included Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestinian representatives. The three-day meeting paved the way to a series of bilateral talks, many overseen by the U.S., between Israel and its Arab neighbours.

 

Starting in 1992, the sides began a series of discussions focusing on Israeli relations with its neighbours and the Palestinians. Throughout the year, working groups convened to discuss water rights, refugees, security matter and other topics. Following the tenth round of talks in the summer of 1993, Palestinian and Israeli officials said they had reached a provisional agreement in secret talks on partial autonomy in occupied territories.

 

The 11th round of talks opened in Oslo, Norway with Israel's announcement of an agreement on Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho. Just a week later, the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Israeli government agreed to recognize each other after 45 years of conflict. The full series of agreements become known as the Oslo Accord.

 

On September 13, 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat met and watched Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO official Abou Abbas formally sign the agreement reached at Oslo. President Clinton, who presided over the signing, said, "Today marks a shining moment of hope for the people of the Middle East; indeed, of the entire world."

 

Treaty of Peace between the State of Israel and Jordan (October 26, 1994)

 

During the multiple rounds of talks that lead to the Oslo accord, the Kingdom of Jordan and Israel also moved closer to peace. The two nations had technically been at war since 1967 and Jordan maintained it should control the West Bank and Jerusalem, as it had before the war.

 

As early as 1988, King Hussein of Jordan had begun to work towards peace. In July of that year, his government formally surrendered its claim to the West Bank, severing all legal and administrative ties. When the major bilateral talks began in 1991, Jordan coordinated with the Palestinians to send a delegation to the Madrid conference. In early 1992, Israeli and Jordanian/Palestinian delegates resolved procedural differences that allowed the peace talks to resume.

 

As the Oslo Accord set the stage for a Palestinian/Israeli peace deal, Jordan also moved to make peace with Israel. A day after the signing ceremony in Washington in September 1993, the two sides agreed to the Israel-Jordan Common Agenda, marking the end of the state of war between the two nations and paving the way for formal peace treaty talks.

 

On October 24, 1994, the Treaty of Peace between the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was signed at the White House by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Jordan's King Hussein.

 

After the peace accord was signed, King Hussein took on a key role in negotiating the implementation of the Israeli/Palestinian accords. In 1997, his work led to an Israeli withdrawal from Hebron, later he worked with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli leaders, even while battling terminal cancer. King Hussein succumbed to cancer in February 1999, but his son, King Abdullah, continues to work for peace in the region.

 

 

Camp David II to the Road Map to Peace (1999 through 2006)

 

Peace talks slowed after the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by an Israeli radical in 1995. After several interim agreements and lengthy discussions about Israeli withdrawals, Gaza City, Ramallah, Hebron and other key cities shifted from Israeli control to the Palestinian Authority. But after a first round of moves, talks bogged down in 1997 and 1998.

 

Finally, after repeated delays, the United States brokered an agreement between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to reopen peace talks in October of 1998. The Wye River Memorandum, as it was called, set the parameters for an Israeli pullout of more territory in addition to moves by Palestinian officials to ensure the security of Israel. Wye also laid the groundwork for discussions about the formal creation of a Palestinian state and other so-called "final status" issues, such as who controls Jerusalem, the ancient capital claimed by both sides.

 

With the election of Labour Party leader Ehud Barak in May 1999, the peace talks moved into high gear. Barak quickly moved to expedite a new accord. His government accepted the idea of a Palestinian state and outlined a strategy generally known as "land for peace" -- that is, giving the Palestinian Authority more territory in exchange for sustained security.

 

Barak also opened negotiations with Syria and finished the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon. All the moves were part of a concerted effort to end the Arab-Israeli violence and show positive progress on the Palestinian issue.

In March of 2000, a series of negotiations opened outside Washington to find a framework for the final status peace talks. The meetings culminated in Camp David in July between Arafat and Barak. As a self-imposed deadline of Sept. 13, 2000 hung over the discussions, U.S. efforts to broker a deal finally failed.

 

At the talks, Barak offered the most sweeping peace plan ever put forward by the Israeli government. Arafat, while moving forward on several issues, did not accept the plan. In a series of reports based on unnamed U.S. sources, American officials blamed Arafat for the talk’s failure.

 

A month later, a visit by hard-line Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem sparked days of protests. The violence spread and intensified as Palestinians vented anger at the continued presence of Israel in areas they claim as their own and the lack of progress in the peace talks.

 

By mid-October 2000, the United States and Egypt organized a meeting to discuss an end to the latest violence and a possible resumption of peace talks. Although Presidents Clinton and Hosni Mubarak persuaded Arafat and Barak to attend, the talks yielded no progress and failed to end the violence. The next month, President Clinton asked former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell to head an international panel to examine the violence and propose a solution.

As the Palestinian protests continued and daily clashes intensified, Prime Minister Barak was defeated by conservative Sharon in February of 2001. All of Israel's major political parties, including Barak's Labour Party, joined Sharon to form a unity government. Violence continued throughout the region with hundreds of Palestinians and Israelis killed.

 

In May 2001, Mitchell issued his report saying the actions of both Israel and Palestinian authorities sparked the violence that had raged for eight months. The report also outlined a multi-step process for the violence to end and talks to reopen. Both Israelis and Palestinians were loathe to endorse the report, saying they did not trust the other side would uphold its part of the deal.

 

The "road map" to peace, drafted by the European Union, Russia, United Nations and United States -- a group known as the Quartet, helped restart peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians in the summer of 2002.

The plan called for both sides to take steps toward creating Israeli and Palestinian states that peacefully coexist.

 

The road map mandated that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat appoint a prime minister to help foster better relations within the Middle East. Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, was installed in that position on April 29, 2003.

 

Following Abbas' induction, a four-way summit was held in Aqaba, Jordan on June 4 to formally inaugurate the peace plan. In a controversial move, King Abdullah played host to President Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon and Prime Minister Abbas.

 

Although both sides pledged to work toward peace, less than two months later, prospects of peace dissolved into a new level of bloodshed.

Sharon announced in December 2003 a disengagement plan involving the evacuation of many settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Then, on Nov. 11, 2004, Arafat died, making Abbas the chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Abbas was later elected president of the Palestinian Authority in January 2005. The Quartet was hopeful about Abbas' succession, viewing him as a moderate negotiator with Israel.

 

"The only way is the choice of peace. It is impossible to liberate Palestine with the use of weapons because the balance of power is not with us," Abbas told CNN at the time.

 

Sharon and Abbas met in Jerusalem in June 2005 to discuss the settlement evacuation plan.

 

Israel began its disengagement from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank on Aug. 15, 2005. Israeli troops removed all of its civilian and military presence in the Gaza Strip (21 Jewish settlements) and four settlements in the West Bank.

 

On Jan. 4, 2006, Sharon suffered a massive stroke and fell into a coma. Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert took over in his absence.

With Sharon still comatose, the Palestinian militant group Hamas won a surprising landslide victory in parliamentary election on Jan. 25. Hamas garnered 76 seats in the 132-seat Parliament, crushing the ruling Fatah Party which had governed parliament for more than 40 years.

 

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, Israel and the EU. The unexpected win startled the international community and put peace prospects again in doubt.

 

The EU and the Bush administration announced that they would not deal with the Hamas government unless it recognized an Israeli state, renounced violence and accepted previous agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.

 

"I don't see how we can be a partner in peace if you advocate the destruction of a country as part of your platform," President Bush said in a news conference at the White House on Jan. 26, 2006.

 

Hamas responded that it would not recognize Israel unless the Jewish state pulls back to its 1967 borders. Western nations and Israel have severed funds to the Palestinians until they recognize Israel.

 

On March 28, 2006, the Kadima Party, founded by Sharon, won the Israeli election. Olmert was sworn in as Israeli prime minister on May 4. He has said he would concede some occupied territory to create a Palestinian state, but refused to withdraw Israel back to its pre-1967 borders.

 

In 2009 Benyamin Netanyahu was elected as the new Prime Minister of Israel.  With the election of Barack Obama, there has been a significant push to restart the Peace process.