The End of the Middle East Peace Process: The Failure of US Diplomacy

207 Pages·2022·4.287 MB·English

by  Samer Bakkour

‘Bakkour presents an important and challenging analysis of the status of the
Middle East peace process, presenting a counter-intuitive rationale for its crea-
tion and existence, and questions its relevance in a region and wider international
security setting that are states of flux. It is essential reading for those interested in
how the international relations of the Middle East have been structured, and how
they may develop in the future.’
Gareth Stansfield, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of University of Exeter, UK,
College of Social Sciences and International Studies and Al-Qasimi
Professor of Arab Gulf Studies, Professor of Middle East Politics
‘Samer Bakkour offers us an incisive and powerful critique on the so-called
Middle East Peace process. Bakkour makes a compelling case when he exposes
the sinister and manipulative role the USA has played in this process. This book
provides the best explanation so far for the failure of the peace process. It ended
since the USA has extracted from the process what it needed to secure its posi-
tion in the region, regardless of the failure to achieve peace. This is a depressing
conclusion but a necessary one for a region that is in a dire need for an alternative
and genuine peace process.’
Ilan Pappé, Professor of History, Director of the European
Centre for Palestine Studies, University of Exeter, UK
‘The Middle East “Peace Process”, sponsored and owned by the United States,
has been in existence for some 50 years. Over this period, the chances for a real-
istic comprehensive peace in the Middle East have steadily diminished, ongoing
wars have ruined the lives and well-being of many, and the dispossession of the
Arab population of Palestine has become ever more acute. The Peace Process has,
in practice, been a barrier to peace and not a path towards it. The failure to resolve
the Palestine issue, moreover, has fed into the wider conflicts, which have drained
the resources of the Middle Eastern region, increasingly taking the form of frac-
tious internecine struggles stoked by outside powers. The political coherence of
many of the states is now at stake. Yet, strangely, established opinion in the West
still views the US-owned Peace Process as key to a settled and stable future for
the Middle East region. It is not.
The key issue, which this book addresses, is how and why the Peace Process
not only failed to lead to peace in the region but also in practice laid the basis for
continuing conflict. The initiatives pursued by the US were defined and orientated
strictly according to US interests, and those were closely aligned with the interests
of one side of the conflict. The Peace Process enabled, and covered up, the steady
expansion of Israel and the dispossession of the Palestinian Arab population –
thereby making the problem ever more intractable.
While much has been written about the Palestine issue and the Arab-Israeli
conflict, this book portrays more realistically and accurately than any other the
dynamics which not only ensured the failure to achieve peace but made peace
impossible. It is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand, or engage with,
the Middle Eastern region.’
Tim Niblock, Emeritus Professor of Middle East Politics,
University of Exeter, UK
‘Extensively documenting the role of the US in Palestine-Israel and the open-
ended Oslo process, this work highlights in particular what Edward Said had
predicted three decades ago: the utter failure of American foreign policy and
diplomacy in the Middle East—an important addition to the critical literature on
Palestine.’
Nur Masalha, Professor of Religion and Politics and Director
of the Centre for Religion and History and the Holy Land
Research Project at St. Mary's University, Twickenham, UK
The End of the Middle East Peace Process
Presenting the Middle East Peace Process as an extension of US foreign policy,
this book argues that ongoing interventions justified in the name of ‘peace’ sustain
and reproduce hegemonic power.
With an interdisciplinary approach, this book questions the conceptualisation
and general understanding of the Peace Process. The author reinterprets regional
conflict as an opportunity for the US through which it seeks to achieve regional
dominance and control. Engaging with the different stages and components of
the Peace Process, he considers economic, military, and political factors which
both changed over time and remained constant. This book covers the US role of
mediation in the region during the Cold War, the history and the present state of
US–Israel relations, Syria’s reputation as an opponent of ‘peace’ compared with
its participation in peace negotiations, and the Palestinian–Israel conflict with
attention to US involvement.
The End of the Middle East Peace Process will primarily be of interest to those
hoping to gain an improved understanding of key issues, concepts, and themes
relating to the Arab–Israeli conflict and US intervention in the Middle East. It will
also be of value to those with an interest in the practicalities of peacebuilding.
Samer Bakkour is Lecturer of Middle East Politics, Institute of Arabic & Islamic
Studies, University of Exeter, Exeter City, United Kingdom.
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Edited by Nikos Christofis
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The Practice of Rented Power
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111. Hezbollah
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112. The End of the Middle East Peace Process
The Failure of US Diplomacy
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For a full list of titles in the series: https://www. routledge. com /middleeaststudies
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The End of the Middle
East Peace Process
The Failure of US Diplomacy
Samer Bakkour
First published 2022
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 Samer Bakkour
The right of Samer Bakkour to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-032-21524-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-21525-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-26881-9 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003268819
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xiii
1 Introduction 1
Introduction 1
The Comprehensive Approach and Liberal Peacebuilding 8
Critical Approaches to Peacebuilding 10
Chapter Overview 14
Notes 16
References 19
2 Different Dimensions of Conflict and Peace 22
The Historical Dimension: The Cold War 22
The Regional Dimension: Middle Eastern Politics 26
The International Dimension: Oil and U.S. Strategy 29
The Ideological Dimension: Zionism and Orientalism 31
Orientalism 35
Notes 38
References 43
3 The U.S. Role in the Region 48
Mediation in Perspective 48
U.S. Mediation in Practice: 1950s to 2000s 54
The U.S. Role in Mediation 59
Conclusion 63
Notes 64
References 69
viii Contents
4 U.S.–Israel Relations 74
Solid and Extraordinary Relations 74
The Jewish/Religious Dimension 78
The Technological and Strategic Dimension 80
Cultural Antecedents 82
Historical Overview 84
Conclusion 97
Notes 99
References 106
5 America and the Syrian Track 112
Cold War Relations 112
U.S.–Syria Relations 114
Syria and the Peace Process 116
Conclusion 121
Notes 123
References 125
6 The Palestinian ‘Problem’ 129
The Madrid Conference 130
Negotiating the Oslo Accords 133
Implementing the Accords 136
The Wye River Memorandum 138
The Camp David Negotiations (2000) 139
The Post-Oslo Period 141
The Trump Administration and the End of the Peace Process 148
Conclusion 154
Notes 156
References 162
7 Conclusion 167
The Relevance of Liberal Peacebuilding to U.S. Policy 168
The Relevance of Critical Accounts of Peacebuilding to U.S.
Policy 175
Concluding Reflections 179
Notes 183
References 186
Index 189
Preface
In the past three decades, ‘peace’ has emerged as an international priority and
field of engagement distinct from, but interrelated with, development and secu-
rity. ‘Peace’ and ‘peacebuilding’ are deeply political but are also in important
respect elevated above and beyond it. This renders both as a higher calling that
exists in serene isolation from the grubby immediacies of everyday politics.
A long-established peacebuilding axiom makes it clear that peacebuilding is
a local project, and this is why ‘participation’ and ‘empowerment’ are not just
viewed as tools that can be used to achieve a particular goal but also as ends to be
achieved. However, on closer examination we find a highly externalised practice
that is defined and orientated by external capacities, and this creates something of
a research puzzle.
In this book, I will engage this puzzle by presenting the Middle East Peace
Process as an extension of U.S. foreign policy. I therefore seek to contest the
claim that ‘peace’ is an elevated concern that exists in serene detachment. The
former President Donald Trump has effectively ripped the façade away, and so it
could be objected that I am simply describing a feature that is in many respects
self-evident. However, I suggest that this also applies in historical retrospect. In
highlighting this, I point to a continuity of practice that, to some extent, implicates
previous administrations in contemporary developments.
The Middle East Peace Process extends back over decades and across the local,
regional, and international levels. It has cost billions of dollars and has preoc-
cupied UN Secretary-Generals, U.S. presidents, and U.S. secretaries of state.
However, despite this substantial and sustained investment of time and resources,
meaningful peace remains elusive.
Repeated failure only elicits a further intensification of effort in the same direc-
tion, in apparent defiance of Albert Einstein’s dictum that ‘insanity is doing the
same thing over and over again and expecting different results’. In seeking to
resolve this conundrum, it is first necessary to dispose of the connotations that
we instinctively ascribe to ‘peace’. When Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin shook
hands on the White House lawn on 13 September 1993, it was presented as a
decisive break with a past history of conflict and bitter enmity. In actual fact, it
could more accurately be described as the realisation of long-established agendas