Diplomatist Magazine Annual Edition 2018 | Page 41

Knowledge Partner Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist PLO. Arafat would not have been able to talk to Sharon, who was held responsible for the notorious 1982 Sabra and Sha*la massacres in Beirut, Lebanon. But Sharon withdrew from Gaza unilaterally and when Hamas won the elec*on in 2006, Israel put pressure on the US and EU, and Gaza was starved of funds. Israel and the US did whatever they could to aggravate the tension between Hamas and Fatah by supplying weapons to Fatah as the two sides fought. In 2002, the Quartet on the Middle East (US, EU, Russia, and the UN) developed a Road Map for Peace. It was a plan drajed by the US that the other three accepted. It was claimed that it was a “performance- based and goal-driven roadmap.” It had three phases: 1. 2. 3. The then President of Pales*ne, Mahmud Abbas, accepted the Road Map, but Israel's then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon expressed unreasonable reserva*ons and aborted the process. For example, Sharon insisted that Hamas should be "dismantled" during the first phase itself. Sharon also insisted that Arafat be replaced. In short, Israel was unwilling, and the US was unwilling or incapable to make Israel agree. The last serious peace effort was that of US Secretary of State John Kerry under former US President Barack Obama. Kerry spoke to Netanyahu 375 *mes over 130 hours. As expected, the talks failed as there was no reason to believe that Netanyahu wanted them to succeed. Israel increased the number of new seQlements in viola*on of interna*onal law, but not without total impunity. Incumbent US President Donald Trump’s son-in- law Jared Kushner has engaged in talks, but ajer Trump announced his decision to tra nsfer the US Embassy to Jerusalem, the US has ceased to be Sa*sfy the precondi*ons for a Pales*nian State Create an independent Pales*nian State with provisional borders Nego*a*ons on a permanent status agreement, recogni*on of a Pales*nian State with permanent borders and end of conflict. Image 18: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, U.S. president Bill Clinton, and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat at the Oslo Accords signing ceremony on 13 September 1993 30