Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Israeli cabinet approved Clinton's proposal on December 28, 2000, on the condition
that the Palestinians accept it, too. But Arafat rejected the proposal, merely repeating his old
demands that all Palestinian refugees and their descendants have a “right of return” to live
in Israel; that the PA should have total control of the entire Temple Mount, the whole West
Bank, and east Jerusalem; and that there should be no Israeli observers along the border with
Jordan.
Even before Arafat's repudiation of the deal, Barak was facing rising domestic criticism at
the failure of his diplomatic strategy. Desperate to make some progress, he had authorized his
own left-wing supporters to talk informally with a Palestinian delegation in Taba, Egypt. This
effort, too, ended without any agreement. The clock had run out for the process, Clinton's term
in offi ce, and Barak. Criticized from right and left, with his coalition eroding and the public
seeing him as weak or uncertain, Barak was in serious political trouble. After failed attempts
to persuade Sharon to join a national unity government — the Likud leader would do so only
if he was an equal partner on security decisions, which Barak refused to contemplate — the
prime minister resigned on November 28, 2000. The Knesset, however, voted not to dissolve
itself, so the election was not for Knesset seats but only for prime minister, with Barak and
Sharon as the candidates.
THE SHARON PRIME MINISTERSHIP
Ariel Sharon won the February 6, 2001, election in a landslide, gaining 62 percent of the votes,
compared to Barak's 38 percent. Many who traditionally voted for the left supported Sharon
in reaction to the outcome of the peace process and the ongoing intifada. An election boycott
called by many Arab voters further added to Sharon's victory margin.
Since only the prime minister had been elected, the old Knesset remained, the only time in
Israel's history this has happened, and the situation provided an impetus to return to the old
system of holding Knesset instead of national elections and choosing the prime minister indi-
rectly. Since the Likud controlled only 19 of the 120 Knesset seats, Sharon had to build a very
wide coalition including Labor and three religious, one centrist, and three right-wing parties.
Sharon took offi ce in March 2001. The intifada continued and even escalated in 2001, with
heavy Israeli civilian casualties from terrorist attacks. National morale was low after the disap-
pointed expectations of great progress in the 1990s. Having yielded much of the West Bank
and most of the Gaza Strip, as well as having provided or permitted the arming and training of
PA security forces, Israel also faced a more diffi cult security situation than before. It was now
far easier to infi ltrate Israel and stage high-casualty suicide bombing attacks, for example. In
addition, since the world had been repeatedly told (even by Israeli sources) that the Palestin-
ians now sought only their own state, rather than Israel's destruction, international criticism of
Israel reached unprecedented levels. Not surprisingly, many Israelis, even strong advocates of
the peace process, thought that the whole seven-year-long effort had backfi red.
Another effect of the 1990s peace process was that Western countries now accepted and
even advocated the creation of an independent Palestinian state as the only solution to the
confl ict. On October 2, 2001, for example, U.S. President George W. Bush announced support
for the creation of a Palestinian state through negotiations.
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search