Le conflit israélo-palestinien : retour vers le futur

In: Politique étrangère: revue trimestrielle publiée par l'Institut Français des Relations Internationales, Band 67, Heft 3, S. 601-615

Abstract

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - Back to the Future, by Hamad Khalidi
The opening declarations of Ehud Barak and the US orchestration of peace talks in the summer of 2000 raised great hopes for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Camp David signiried the possibility of a compromise that would have been in Une with the previous agreements (Oslo). But Yassir Arafat's refusal to accept an Israeli offer that was ambiguous resul-ted in his losing legitimacy as a partner for peace, whereas a bare provocation (Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif) exacerbated the religious element of the conflict and sparked off the Second Intifada, which resulted in many more casualties than the first. Since then the continuing colonisation of the Occupied Territories and the radicalisation of the two camps mean that the peace process has been taken hostage: if Israel and the United States believe that the recognition of a Palestinian state is contingent on Arafat's departure and the democratisation of the Palestinian Authority, Sharon's policies could well bring the conflict back to what it was in 1948 — an existential war for the land of Palestine.