The Peace Process

The term “peace process” is widely used to describe the period in the Israeli-Arab relations in which the parties involved in the Middle East conflict have been seeking a solution through direct negotiations since 1991. Precursors can be traced back to the 1970s when, in connection with the Egyptian-Israeli and Syrian-Israeli troop disengagement agreements of 1974, first steps towards a return of occupied Arab territory were made. These steps were explicitly linked to the goal of a just and lasting peace in the region. With its almost simultaneous approach to the possibility of a two-state solution—a state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel—the PLO had also embarked on the path to conflict resolution. In 1978, the future of the Palestinian community was for the first time at the center of regional negotiations, when an autonomy solution for the Palestinian question was considered in the Camp David talks between Israel and Egypt. However, the Palestinians were not involved in these talks—a significant deficiency insofar as agreements made over the heads of a party to the conflict carry the seed of failure.