Palestinian Cause; Tel Aviv’s Moves in Shadow of Arab Uprisings

After foundation of the regime in 1948 up to 1967 the military options and violence directed the developments of the occupied Palestine, but 1987 marked the beginning of the political process of the Palestinian case. It was in this time that the Egyptian government recognized the Israeli regime and so broke the stigma of recognition of Tel Aviv in the Arab world.
 
The Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations officially started from 1993 in Oslo, Norway. They continued for 7 years in a row up to 2000. The peace supporters around the world were optimistic that the 50-year disputes end but the Israeli brutality caused failure of the second round of the Camp David peace negotiations and ignition of the first Palestinian intifada. The political efforts were halted for four years. Continuation of the intifada for five years and death of Yasser Arafat, the former chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), pushed the US to work to restart the political process between the Israelis and Palestinians. Certainly, at that time the Palestinian people’s resistance proved to such Israeli hardliners as Ariel Sharon, the former Prime Minister of the Israeli regime, that repression and violence could not put down intifada, rather they could press Tel Aviv against more challenges in its security environment.
 
At that time, it was very unlikely that the political processes will lead to finding solution for the issue because the gaps over such cases as the refugees, Al-Quds, and the borders were too deep to be bridged by simply signing peace agreements. But Tel Aviv in its talks with the Arab negotiating delegations, particularly the PLO, managed to fulfill its policy of creating divisions between the Arabs and finally wrest recognition of its legitimacy from the PLO.
 
After that time, the experts believed that Tel Aviv had no motivation to continue the peace negotiations, however, the performance of Lebanon’s Hezbollah in the 2006 33-Day War as well as the actions of the resistant Palestinian groups forced the Israeli regime to return to the negotiating table. The return to negotiations was marked by Annapolis Conference for peace held in 2007, but it failed to produce any results.
 
With start of Arab world’s developments following the 2011 uprisings the Palestinian cause suffered a full deadlock. Actually, none of the engaged sides is interested to return to the negotiations. The Palestinian side officially said it will return to dialogue only if Tel Aviv recognizes the independent Palestinian state. At the same time, the Israeli regime has accused the Palestinian Authority of failure to provide security in the Palestinian territories.
 
It is notable that the Syrian crisis has embroiled a considerable amount of the Axis of Resistance's capability. This, in turn, to some degree has eliminated the Israeli security concerns and demotivated Tel Aviv for resuming the peace talks and making concessions to the Palestinian side. Meanwhile, the policy of subjection of the resistant Palestinian groups has started and to some degree has been successful. That is why the Israeli regime knows well that any concessions to the Palestinians in the present conditions of Palestine and the Arab world are fruitless.
 
The important point in the political process of the Palestinian cause is that the US has always presented itself as the main supporter of Israeli-Palestinian peace process. But Washington with a consideration of the recent West Asian developments and the Western economic crisis is less active now than before to push for a conclusion of the peace process. It appears that Washington has instead focused its foreign policy on preventing the anti-US groups and political parties from rising to power in the Arab countries.
 
It must be noted that the Arab world’s developments have affected the foreign policy of sides involved in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process including the Palestinian Authority, the Israeli regime itself, and the US. Therefore, before emergence of new regional order and finalization of the Arab world’s future changes, it is very unlikely that new round of Palestinian-Israeli peace dialogue starts.