How is Israel seeking peace with the Palestinians today?
In April 2003, the US State Department released the text of the ‘Roadmap’ peace plan for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Roadmap specifies steps required by the Israelis and the Palestinians to build confidence and reach a settlement on establishing a Palestinian State. It is sponsored by the Quartet, which is made up of the European Union, the UN, the US, and the Russian Federation. In 2003, Israel stated its support for the Roadmap with some reservations. Whilst the Roadmap has been superseded by subsequent events, it remains an important touchstone in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. In October 2003, then-Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon initiated an historic plan to withdraw Israel’s forces from the Gaza Strip and part of the northern West Bank. The Disengagement Plan was an extremely difficult and divisive step in Israel but was nevertheless implemented in August 2005 and received widespread international support. Israel hoped the plan would provide improv
Hamas is a radical Islamist organisation that emerged from the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood during the early stages of the First Intifada. Its charter was issued in 1988, setting out the goals and vision of the organisation. It includes a firm and explicit rejection of the very idea of a peace process, which would involve the surrender of ‘Islamic land’ and the recognition of Israel’s right to exist on it. The central aim of Hamas is to establish an Islamic state in all territory defined as ‘Palestine’ (from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River) through armed struggle. Hamas is fiercely anti-Semitic and its charter blames Jews for all kinds of evils, including the First and Second World Wars. Hamas has become a leading perpetrator of terrorist attacks against Israel, as well as against suspected Palestinian ‘collaborators’ and Fatah rivals. Hamas has carried out suicide bombings and attacks against Israel since the early 1990s. In recent years, its principal method
