Israel Has Its Best Chance for Peace in 25 Years
Bill Clinton’s team came close to a deal in 2000 but the Palestinians walked away. The devastation of Iran’s proxies opens a wide but brief window.
Can they make a deal?
Photographer: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Twenty-five years ago this week, I was at Camp David as President Bill Clinton’s lead Middle East negotiator. We sought to resolve the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians and to produce peace between two national movements competing for the same space.
In July 2000, we were optimistic about ending the conflict. Over the preceding seven years, since the beginning of the Oslo process — which provided mutual recognition between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization and called for the creation of a Palestinian Authority (PA) to negotiate peace with Israel — we had produced four partial agreements: the Gaza-Jericho Agreement, the Interim Agreement, the Hebron Protocol and the Wye River Memorandum.