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OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 10/9/2014, SPi

The Crooked Course:
Step by Step on the Path to Peace

INTRODUCTION

As Immanuel Kant observed, “out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.” And the Middle East peace process is no exception. It runs a crooked course. This work provides a paper trail of the meandering and rocky path of the peace process. Relevant documents related to the Arab–Israeli conflict over the past century (since the Sykes–Picot Agreement of 1916) are compiled in this book. It provides an annotated and chronological overview of attempts to make peace in one of the most difficult and protracted conflicts in the world, and it includes a full set of accompanying maps specially made for this edition.

The sheer volume of such a work raises the critical problem of how to present the documents in a way that facilitates their accessibility and understanding. A simple chronological ordering would miss important connections between the documents, which are thus better grouped by common theme. To this end, we have divided the volume into five thematic Parts. Part I compiles documents related to the formal peace agreements between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as those related to Israel’s unilateral disengagement from Gaza. The documents in Part II relate to the many informal peace proposals and ideas offered over the years that have served to contribute to more official processes at a later date. Part III compiles the many important United Nations documents specifically related to the question of Palestine. Part IV sets the Israeli–Palestinian issue in a broader context, providing regional papers going back a century, up to the latest documents. Finally, Part V compiles Israeli and Palestinian domestic documents relevant to the quest for peace in the Middle East.

Grouping the documents by theme highlights the evolution of particular aspects of the conflict and the peace process over time. When examined as a group, these documents provide valuable insights on the events, conditions, and actions that have been most important in influencing the different phases of the peace process.

For guidance, the reader will find a chronological overview of all the documents and key events.

ON PART I: PEACE AGREEMENTS AND THE DISENGAGEMENT FROM GAZA

Nothing about the quest for peace in the Middle East has been simple or easily attained. Merely bringing Palestinians and Israelis together was a feat that took decades to achieve. Despite all the efforts exerted by not only the principal parties, but also local actors, regional neighbors, and international players, agreements between the two sides

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