FROM AIPAC

Israel’s 60-Year Quest for Peace


Even before Israel was established, the leaders of the Jewish community in then-British Mandate

Palestine sought peace with their Arab neighbors. The State of Israel has remained committed to

that goal throughout its history, repeatedly demonstrating its desire to live side-by-side with

neighboring states and peoples. Israel’s willingness to trade land for peace has led to peace

treaties with Egypt and Jordan. Likewise, Israel proved its willingness to make bold, painful

concessions in order to secure agreements that it hoped would end the conflict with the

Palestinians. The current Israeli government continues on this path.

􀀗1918 - 1919 – Early Zionists Reach Out to Arabs

Chaim Weizmann, who was to become the first president of Israel, led a mission to Cairo in 1918 to meet with

leading Syrian Arab nationalists. He expressed the Jewish people’s desire to live in harmony with the Arabs. The

following year, he entered into an agreement with the Arab nationalist leader Emir Faisal, in which the two

agreed to support each other’s nationalist

aspirations.

􀀗1937 – Jews Accept Peel

Commission Report

In 1937, Israel’s future Prime Minister David

Ben-Gurion accepted the recommendations of

the official British Peel Commission report as a

basis for negotiations. The Commission

allocated a very small percentage of Palestine to

a Jewish state, while most of the country would

have gone to an Arab state and Jerusalem would

have remained under the British Mandate.

The Arab governments vehemently rejected

the plan.

􀀗1947 – Jews Accept U.N. Partition Plan

The Jewish community of Palestine, and Zionists worldwide, accepted the partition plan approved by the United

Nations that would create a Jewish state alongside an Arab state. They accepted that the plan although the Jewish

David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, reads the Jewish state’s

declaration of independence in 1948.

American Israel Public Affairs Committee

state it envisioned was truncated and non-contiguous, without Jerusalem. The Arab states rejected the U.N.

resolution, invading Israel in 1948 with the explicit purpose of destroying the Jewish state. Israel won the war.

􀀗1948 – A State is Born

Declaring independence, David Ben-

Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister, said

Israel would “extend the hand of peace to

all its neighbors” as well as “full and

equal citizenship and due representation”

for the non-Jewish population.

􀀗1967 – Israel’s Offer to

Withdraw is Rejected

Days after successfully defending itself

in the Six-Day War, Israel offered to

return captured territories in return for

peace treaties. Egypt and Syria

immediately rejected the offer, as did the

rest of the Arab League countries.

􀀗1978 – Israel Signs Camp David

Accords with Egypt

Israel agreed to return the entire Sinai Peninsula, an area more than twice the size of Israel, to Egypt in return for

a peace agreement and normalization of relations. In 1979, Egypt and Israel signed a Treaty of Peace – the first

such treaty between Israel and an Arab country.

􀀗1993 – Israel Inks Oslo Agreement

Israel granted the Palestinians unprecedented authority over Gaza and parts of the West Bank and commenced

negotiations designed to end the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in exchange for a Palestinian

agreement to recognize Israel and end terrorism.

􀀗1994 – Israel Establishes Peace with Jordan

Jordan’s King Hussein and Israel’s Yitzhak Rabin signed a treaty of peace. Jordan became the second Arab state

to formally come to terms with Israel.

􀀗2000 – Israel Makes Historic Offer for Peace

Following talks at Camp David, Yasir Arafat rejected Israel’s far-reaching peace offer and the Palestinians

launched sustained terrorist attacks. Nevertheless, by the end of 2000, Israel agreed to President Clinton’s

In 1994, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (left) and Jordan’s King

Hussein (right), with the help of President Bill Clinton, signed a peace

agreement.

American Israel Public Affairs Committee