Palestine and Israel : Peace or Apartheid:Prospects for Resolving the Conflict

by Marwan Bishara

• ISBN13: 9781842771112
• ISBN10: 1842771116
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2001-12-07
• Publisher: Zed Books

Summary

In this insightful new book, a leading Palestinian commentator,analyzes where Palestinians and Israelis are noweight years after the Oslo Accords of 1993 and the peace process they were supposed to have begun. Bishara shows how the asymmetry of power between Palestinians (the occupied) and Israelis (the occupiers) was ignored by patrons of the Oslo peace processnotably the US. Running counter to the prevailing support for the Oslo process, this evocative new book shows how it was in fact doomed from the start. Inviting the reader to look ahead, Bishara examines the demographic, political, and security stakes, and explores the avenues that eventually could lead both sides to a just and durable peace.

Table of Contents

Preface: The Search for an Israeli de Gaulle	xi
Introduction	1	(10)
VIOLENCE
The second Intifada	11	(17)
On the ground: Israel's land war	15	(3)
The international front: Israel's media war	18	(6)
The Intifada: a break with Oslo	24	(4)
Israel's Enemy Within: The Million Forgotten Palestinians	28	(15)
October 2000: the Israeli Palestinians' lonely rising	29	(5)
Decades of discrimination	34	(2)
A `fifth column'	36	(2)
What future?	38	(5)
INTERIM
Impasse in the Oslo Diplomatic Process	43	(17)
The peace process: defective diplomacy	45	(2)
Contextualizing Oslo	47	(3)
Constructive ambiguity becomes deliberate deception	50	(1)
Israeli leadership crisis undermines diplomacy	51	(3)
The Camp David charade	54	(2)
The last-minute negotiations, January 2001	56	(2)
Sharon's victory	58	(2)
The Real Role of the United States in the Peace Process	60	(17)
US considerations, US goals	61	(3)
Coercive diplomacy	64	(1)
America caves in on the illegal settlements	65	(3)
Palestinian and Israeli perceptions of America's role	68	(2)
Blackmailing the Palestinians	70	(1)
Failure: from Clinton to Bush	71	(6)
FINAL STATUS NEGOTIATIONS
The Palestinian Refugees	77	(7)
The most important `final status' issue	77	(2)
The refugee question in the negotiations	79	(3)
The international community's lasting obligation	82	(2)
Jerusalem	84	(15)
The Old City: whose city?	84	(2)
Israel's demographic war	86	(2)
Jerusalem in the final status negotiations	88	(3)
Sharing the city: end to an Israeli taboo	91	(1)
The politics of Jerusalem today	92	(7)
APARTHEID
Seven Fat Years for Israel - Seven Lean Years for Palestine	99	(15)
Oslo as an economic document	100	(3)
The impact of Oslo on the Palestinian economy	103	(2)
Separation becomes segregation	105	(1)
Israel restructures economic relations with Palestinians	106	(3)
Being an economic dependency	109	(5)
The West Bank Settlements: Apartheid in Practice	114	(15)
Expansion of the settlements	116	(3)
The real purpose of the settlements	119	(2)
Oslo institutionalizes apartheid	121	(8)
NO END IN SIGHT
Israel the Unready: But Choose it Must	129	(10)
Index	139