United States‘ involvement in the Middle East Peace Process

INTRODUCTION

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the greatest conflicts of our time, especially as no peace effort has proven to be really effective. From the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, the history of the Palestinians and the Israelis is defined by perpetual conflict with one another. Israelis and Palestinians are entangled with each other and alienated from one another in almost every imaginable way. From 1948 to 1973, Arabs and Israelis engaged in four great wars with heavy casualties on both sides. The United States of America has deployed enormous resources as peace broker in this conflict partly because of its special relationship to Israel and partly because of its economic and strategic interests in the Middle East.^[1] President Jimmy Carter initiated the first great peace effort in 1978 that led to the signing of the Camp David Peace Accord between Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Begin. Successive American administrations have maintained the tradition of mediation, but the most genuine commitment was made by the Clinton administration, culminating in the signing of the Wye River Memorandum in 1998. This mediation effort notwithstanding, peace between the Israelis and Palestinians is still an imaginary luxury and violence remains the order of the day between the two peoples. The aim of this review paper is to analyze the lack of bold leadership on the part of the United States of America in brokering a lasting peace deal between Isrealis and Palestinians. This paper is divided into three parts and the first part retraces the history of the conflict from the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 to the Yom Kippur war of 1973. The second part examines the main issues of contention in the peace process, beginning with the United States’ lack of neutrality, Israeli Security concerns, the refugee problem, the status quo of Jerusalem, the issue of the occupied territories and the Palestinian quest for self determination. The last part proposes policies to the US State Department that can lead to a meaningful and lasting peace in the Middle East. The paper recommends the US to adopt neutrality as mediator, proceed to the creation of a viable Palestinian state and press for the enforcement of previous agreements that will allow for the safe return of refugees, promote apology and reconciliation between Arabs and Jews and encourage shared responsibility over Jerusalem. Rational choice is used to analyse US policy choices, whereas the theory of Prisoner’s Dilemma Game is used to analyse Israeli-Palestinian choice of partner.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, the Middle East was partitioned between the French and the British. The League of Nations granted France control over Lebanon and Syria while Britain took control of Palestine (Wikipedia, 2009). This balkanisation of the region disrupted Arab unity and fostered separate Arab particularisms. The British soon eliminated French rule when the French authorities in Syria and Lebanon declared for the Vichy government and Britain also gained the mandate over Palestine. In November 1917, the British issued the Balfour Declaration recognising the Zionist aim of a Jewish homeland. Jewish emigration to Palestine increased dramatically after Hitler came to power in Germany in January 1933. This gave rise to anti-British currents and Arab nationalism as this was regarded as an act of blatant British imperialism but divisions amongst the Arabs weakened their capacity to oust the British. The British efforts to reconcile the Arabs were evasive and they tried to partition Palestine. By 1936, the Arabs in Palestine revolted and the British sent the Peel Commission in 1937 to deal with this problem. The Peel Commission proposed a tripartite partition into an Arab and Jewish states, leaving Britain with a reduced area including Jerusalem and Bethlehem. But the threats of war in Europe pushed Britain to choose the Arabs and issued the White Paper of May 1939, which proposed to limit the Jewish population of Palestine to one-third of the whole and to stop Jewish immigration after a further 75,000 Jews had been admitted over five years, this despite the fact that in Germany Hitler had persecuted Jews. The White Paper also said that Palestine would become independent and that land sales to Jews should be curtailed.

During World War II, the Zionists shifted their attention from Britain to the US where they were embraced. In 1945, the US endorsed David Ben Gurion’s plea to issue 100.000 Jews entry permits and persuaded Britain to consent to the idea. The campaign to limit Jewish immigration into Palestine earned Britain much criticism at home and the British government and the Arabs rejected the proposal for an Anglo-American committee of 1946. Frustrated, the Jewish extremists (Urgunists and the Stern Gang) embarked on terrorist attacks and on 22 July 1946, the King David Hotel in Jerusalem was bombed killing 91 people.^[2] As the situation further deteriorated, the British announced in February 1947, that they would turn over the problem to the United Nations.

In May 1947, the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) was set up and ist members set off to Palestine. Suffering increased as 4554 Jewish refugees aboard the Exodus were refused permission (Calvocoressi, 2001:386). Unable to keep order or defend themselves, the British decided to quit Palestine. UNSCOP then produced a partition plan dividing Palestine into three Arab and three Jewish segments linked in a sort of economic union with Jerusalem under International Trusteeship. This plan adopted by the UN in November 1947, was accepted by Jews, but rejected by the Arabs. Fighting immediately broke out as the Jews struggled to get control of their segment. In December 1947, Britain declared that it would give up the mandate on 15 May 1948 and this led to the escalation of violence as Jews secured more arms.

In April 1948, Jews contrived at Deir Yassin a massacre, which set in a train an exodus of refugees (Calvocoressi, 1989). The last British official left Palestine on May 14, 1948 and the state of Israel was proclaimed with Labour leader and head of the Jewish Agency, David Ben Gurion as Prime Minister and Chaim Weizmann as President. The nascent Jewish state was immediately recognised by the Americans and Russians (Dobson, 2001:95). Five Arab states declared war on Israel and ever since this vicious cycle of violence persists. The Arabs and Jews went to war against each other in 1948 following the creation of Israel; they did so again in the 1956 Suez War, the 1967 Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and in 1982 when Israeli troops invaded Lebanon. The conflict burst four times into open warfare with remarkable property and human loses on both sides and each time with Israel making more territorial gains.

The US has been and remains the main mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Over the years, the US has initiated many peace talks, most of which have been abortive. The first great effort was initiated by Democratic President Jimmy Carter, which resulted in the signing of the Camp David Accord in 1979 between Prime Minister Begin of Israel and President Anwar Sadat of Egypt. Many peace initiatives by the US have resulted in the signing of accords, which have never been honoured for various reasons. The next part of the paper examines various dynamics of the conflict that have made peace impossible.

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^[1] The United States is very dependent on Middle East oil and needs the constant support of its Arab allies in the fight against terror

^[2] The hotel housed the offices of the British authorities of Palestine, headquarters of the British forces in Palestine and the secretariat of the Palestinian government