HISTORY 244 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: System On A Chip, East Jerusalem, Palestinians
Outline -- The Oslo Process
I. The Big Picture
● Chief pal emotion
○ Sense of injustice and humiliation
○ Arabs weren’t responsible for holocaust but they had to play the price
● In 1967, israel came up against more effective opposition
● As a result both sides began to realize that a swap of land for peace makes
sense
● This realism began in the 1970s in egypt
● In the 1990s, israel and its eastern folks also reached a stalemate
○ Israel became more willing to compromise in the east after likud’s two
failed attempts
○ The same deadlock in the southwest now began to transform israel’s
eastern frontiers
II. A Golden Moment in the East
● What made peace with egypt possible was that egypt and israel were worn out
● Compromise was the only way forward
○ Same became true in east in 1990s
● 5 factors came together to weaken plo - all related bc they all represent collapse
of soviet union and america only super power after cold war
○ 1- the first intifada showed that colonizing the entire bank was impractical,
but didnt stop israels settlement close to green line
■ Israel wanted to keep for strategic reasons
■ Population grew by almost 50% after first intifada
■ PLO sensed time was not on their side. Everyday likud was
creating ___ on the floor
○ 2) The massive immigration of jews from the soviet union
■ Once the soviet union collapsed, russian jews entered israel
● By 2000 a million had fled into israel
● Third had science or technological degrees
● The smartest of the alliyahs
● Dramatically increased economy
● Provided more settlers for the territory
○ 3) collapse of soviet union 1989
■ Pals could no longer count on support of sov union
■ Without sov weapons, they had no military option
○ 4) gulf war of 1990-91
■ This problem was really of the PLOs own making
■ Started when the iraqi leader invaded kuwait for oil
○ 5) pulled in favor of compromise -> rise of hamas
■ Hamas was engineer of first intifada
■ Israel would only respond to violence
● Negotiations were a waste of time
■ Plo said negotiations could help palestine
■ The only potential for peace agreement was PLO
■ Hamas gave israel and plo another reason to work together
● Israel was chasten by lebanon and first intifada,
● Lebanon was chasten by settlements, russian immigration, soviet collapse, first
gulf war
● Israel and plo were both scared of Hamas
● Labors electoral victory
○ Fought on the issue of peace
○ Preliminary talks had began at conference in madrid spain in ‘91
○ New prime minister showed us that israel cannot subdue palestine by
force, negotiation is the only solution
III. Negotiations to 1995: The New Optimism
● Better in the early 90s then anytime in history
● Rabin made progress
● In almost 1993, PLO and Israel stunned the world when they announced that
they agreed on the Declaration of Principle
○ Televised ceremony along the white house
○ Signed 1993
○ Rabin and Yitzhak shook hands as clinton beamed on
○ Oslo Peace Process
○ Declaration set up a framework for negotiations for which the questions
could be addressed
● Cairo
○ Plo accepted israel’s rights to exist while israel recognized the PLO as the
representatives of the Palestinian people
○ Palestinian Authority- take charge of gaza strip and Jericho
○ PA would take over after phased israeli withdrawals
○ PA would create their own security forces
○ Final decision would be faced in may of 1995
■ Violence would end and peaceful negotiation was only way forward
■ 2:1 ratio
● Created 3 territorial categories in west bank
○ Category A- main palestinian cities
Document Summary
Outline -- the oslo process: the big picture. Arabs weren"t responsible for holocaust but they had to play the price. In 1967, israel came up against more effective opposition. As a result both sides began to realize that a swap of land for peace makes sense. This realism began in the 1970s in egypt. In the 1990s, israel and its eastern folks also reached a stalemate. Israel became more willing to compromise in the east after likud"s two failed attempts. The same deadlock in the southwest now began to transform israel"s eastern frontiers. What made peace with egypt possible was that egypt and israel were worn out. Same became true in east in 1990s. 5 factors came together to weaken plo - all related bc they all represent collapse of soviet union and america only super power after cold war.
