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8.7.2 Camp David, 2000 - Part 2

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The Emergence of the Modern Middle East - Part II

Tel Aviv University

4.8 (295 ratings) | 11K Students Enrolled

This course will discuss the developments in the Middle East from the early 20th century to the present. It will discuss the rise and retreat of Arab nationalism, the problems of internal cohesion of the Arab states, issues of religion and state, and the evolution of Islamist politics. It will also focus on the evolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict and its impact on the region and will conclude with an in depth analysis of the “Arab Spring” by placing these contemporary revolutionary events in their historical context. Please note that this course builds upon a previous course - The Emergence of the Modern Middle East - Part I (https://www.coursera.org/learn/modern-middle-east-1/home/welcome) Learn about the history of the Middle East for a deeper understanding of current regional developments!

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4.8 (295 ratings)

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DA

Jan 31, 2016

An excellent course that examines the evolution of the Arab- Israeli conflict and which provides a historical context for the "Arab Spring" Insightful and thought-provoking...

TP

May 01, 2016

An excellent follow-up and continuation to Part I. This course offers great insight into the historical and current relations of the countries within this region.

From the lesson

WEEK 4

The escalation and de-escalation of the Arab-Israeli conflict from 1973 to the present

8.1.1 The October Surprise - Part 16:16

8.1.2 The October Surprise - Part 24:33

8.2.1 The Egyptian-Israeli Peace - Part 16:43

8.2.2 The Egyptian-Israeli Peace - Part 26:23

8.3 The PLO and the 1982 War in Lebanon3:45

8.4.1 The First Palestinian Intifada - Part 15:11

8.4.2 The First Palestinian Intifada - Part 26:15

8.5.1 The Oslo Accords - Part 17:17

8.5.2 The Oslo Accords - Part 28:49

8.6 The Jordanian-Israeli Peace6:56

8.7.1 Camp David, 2000 - Part 16:46

8.7.2 Camp David, 2000 - Part 26:55

8.8 Unilateral Disengagement and Further Negotiations10:31

Taught By

Professor Asher Susser
Senior Research Fellow

Transcript

There is a huge difference between the inter-state conflict between Israel and

the Arab states, and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

These are two very different kinds of conflict.

In the conflict between Israel and

the Arab states there is one bag of issues, one could say.

That is the bag of issues relating to the war of 1967 and its consequences.

In the negotiations between Israel and Egypt, or Syria,

or Jordan, the issues that Israel, has to deal with

are the territorial matters arising from its conquests in 1967.

Peace with Egypt is possible if you give the territory

conquered from Egypt in 1967 back to the Egyptian people.

But between Israel and Palestine, there are two sets of issues, not just 1967.

There is the 1948 set of issues, which is even more complicated, more demanding,

and far more difficult for the Israelis to address than those of 1967.

The 1967 issues are those that relate,

,as we have seen in the Oslo Accords, to territory and to Jerusalem.

These are matters that Israel can concede on in principle without eroding

the nature of the Israeli state as the nation state of the Jewish people.

But Israel cannot address the 1948 questions

.without touching upon its very essence :and the 1948 questions are two

One is the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to Israel proper, and

the other is the question of the political, collective rights

of the Palestinian people who are citizens of the State of Israel itself.

It is these two issues that belong to the 1948 set of questions.

That Israel cannot address without opening the questions

of Israel's very being as the nation state of the Jewish people.

Therefore the 1967 issues, as difficult as they may be,

are far easier to address than those of 1948.

And the 1948 issues don't exist in the set of issues that Israel has to deal with,

with the Arab states: Syria, and Egypt, and Lebanon, and Jordan too.

as states do not have 1948 questions with Israel, but the Palestinians do, and

that makes the creation of a long-standing agreement that would end the conflict for

all time, much more difficult to attain.

,On the Israeli-Palestinian domain there is also an unbridgeable

clash of the narratives.

If, for Israel, the creation of the state of Israel was an act of

Jewish self-defense against ,their pitiful history

from the Palestinian point of view, this was never an act of self-defense,

but an act of aggression from the very beginning

of Jewish settlement in Palestine.

In the Israeli view,

the creation of the state of Israel was the epitome of historical justice

for the people, who were the most oppressed of all peoples.

From the Palestinian point of view, the creation of Israel was

the epitome of injustice, quite the opposite.

These are not narratives that are close to each other.

These are narratives that the distance between them is so

great that they are virtually impossible to bridge.

The very being of the Palestinian people, Palestinian-ness,

the identity of the Palestinians, is as Beshara Doumani,

an American-Palestinian academic has described,

being Palestinian is based on the "shared memories of the traumatic uprooting of

their society and the experiences of being dispossessed, displaced, and stateless."

It is these factors that were to come to define Palestinian-ness.

Palestinian so defined is very difficult for

Israelis to come to term with.

It is very difficult for Palestinian-ness so defined to come to terms with Israel.

The failure of the talks at Camp David, and the failure of the Oslo

process gave way to what became known as the Second Intifada.

The Second Intifada, the second uprising the Palestinians against

the continued Israeli occupation was very different from the first one.

The Second Intifada was not a civilian, unarmed uprising of demonstrations by men,

and women, and, and young boys and girls against the Israelis.

The Second Intifada was the Intifada of the suicide bombers.

Perhaps the most violent confrontation between the Israelis and

the Palestinians ever since 1948.

This campaign of suicide bombings in Israel that took over

a thousand of Israeli lives over the ,the next few years

if intended to soften Israeli positions ,they did not. Quite the opposite

Israeli positions were hardened very significantly

because the bombings took place in Israel's major cities.

And whether this was intended or not by the Palestinian side, how the Israelis

understood the bombings in the cities of Israel, is what is important here.

And if the bombings were taking place in Jerusalem,

Tel Aviv, Haifa, Beersheba, ,and the other towns of Israel

the only conclusion the Israelis could draw from this kind of attack was that

what was in the cards from the Palestinian point of view,

was not a state in ,the West Bank and Gaza

but a challenge to the entire state of Israel.

The suicide bombings also gave rise to the old problematique of armed struggle

and terrorism.

By using this kind of armed struggle,

the Palestinians again delegitimized their own movement themselves by

carrying out acts which were deliberately ,designed to take civilian lives

and therefore exposed them to the condemnation, again, as terrorists.

The end result, was the Israeli reoccupation of the West Bank.

And for the meantime,

an end to any kind of serious Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.

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