Israel's Quest for Peace

Since its independence in May 1948, Israel has focused on a quest for peace in the region in which it is located. At various times that effort has been seen as successful, but more often it has resulted in failure. What is clear is that, at the outset of the twenty-first century, Israel is not at peace with all of its neighbors, having signed and implemented but two peace treaties (with Egypt in 1979 and with Jordan in 1994). Despite the initial promise of the Oslo process, Israel remains the target of unremitting hostility, terrorism, and violence, and is shunned by most of the Arab states. Where does Israel's quest stand today, and what are its perspectives on the peace process?

The Arab-Israeli conflict, a fixture of international politics since World War II, has its origins in the nineteenth century and the competition and conflict between Zionism and Arab nationalism for dominance in Palestine. However, it was only after World War II, and against the background of the Holocaust and the extermination of 6 million Jews by the Nazi regime in Germany, that the Zionist movement achieved a part of its goal with the United Nations decision of 29 November 1947 to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state, with the city of Jerusalem as a corpus separatum administered by the UN. As a harbinger of things to come, Israel was faced with the rejection of the partition decision by the Arabs of Palestine and by the League of Arab States. When Britain terminated its Mandate over Palestine on 14 May 1948, Israel declared its independence. Despite hopes and pleas for peaceful coexistence with its Arab neighbors in Palestine and in the broader Middle East, the declaration of independence was greeted by a declaration of war, in effect formalizing the hostilities that followed the UN partition vote. Peace eluded Israel.

The quest for peace and acceptance by its Arab neighbors became the cornerstone of Israeli diplomacy from that point forward, because it was vital for the long-term survival and development of the Jewish state. At the same time, the refusal of the Arab states to enter into negotiations for peace fostered Israel's emphasis on security.

Israel in Perspective

Israel is not a colossus, but rather a country small in population as well as in size, with a meager resource endowment. It sees itself as a beleaguered state, despite its military prowess and capabilities. It is a relatively young state that celebrates its fifty-fourth anniversary of independence in 2002, although the link between the Jewish state and the Land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael) is an ancient one. Israel was seen as the fulfillment of the Zionist ideal of creating a Jewish state in response to the threat posed by anti-Semitism. Palestine, an amorphous portion of the Ottoman Empire, had a small Jewish population, primarily descendants of residents that had remained there since the days of the ancient Jewish kingdoms. The goal of the Zionist movement, pursued throughout the first half of the twentieth century, gained support with the Balfour Declaration, in which the British government on 2 November 1917 noted that "His majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." The declaration was endorsed by President Woodrow Wilson as well as by Congress. But after World War I, no Jewish state was established, as the League of Nations assigned Britain a Mandate for Palestine, which it soon split, establishing Transjordan in the Palestine Mandate's territory east of the Jordan River. World War II created the environment and circumstances for the building of the Jewish state as the British, war weary and lacking the resources and will to remain in Palestine, turned the issue over to the UN for its decision in 1947. While Zionist and Israeli leaders were and often remain divided on the ultimate territorial goals of the Jewish state and on the methods to achieve its...