The Annapolis Summit: Israelis and Palestinians Shoot for the Moon

On Tuesday, President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will host a one-day international conference in Annapolis, Md., aimed at creating an independent Palestinian state living peacefully with Israel. For the Bush administration, it’s a belated re-start of the Road Map for Peace, a five-year-old initiative that stalled soon after Bush, the United Nations and the European Union announced it in 2002.

What’s the difference this time? Bush is pushing Israel and the Palestinians to agree, at least in principle, on a final peace treaty—or at least a “final status agreement”—even though fundamental issues such as security, the Palestinian refugees’ right of return, the fate of Jerusalem and Hamas’ control of the Gaza Strip are unresolved. Bush is looking for nothing short of a revolutionary agreement that would end 40 years of Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and 60 years of Arab-Israeli conflicts.

The summit’s aims are as high as expectations are low. A deal between Israelis and Palestinians would be little short of miraculous. All the major negotiators and mediators are politically weak and internally divided, including the Bush administration. Even is a deal is struck in Annapolis, chances are dispiritingly low that it would be carried out without being hijacked by violent and unresolved realities on the ground, for many reasons.

For a complete briefing on the background, players, the issues and the bottom line of the Annapolis summit, see Shooting for the Palestinian-Israeli Moon.

See also:

• Israel: Country Profile
• Palestine and the Palestinians: Profile
• US-Mideast Policy: A Primer
• Bush's Road Map for Peace Five Years Later