“PEACE TREATIES” have been made since about 2100 B C, as per history.
They are defined as “Legal Agreements between two or more parties, usually being countries or governments, which formally end a state of war between them”. In such circumstances, permanent conditions for conflict resolution may be finally enunciated in a ‘Formal Peace Treaty’ and the most important conditions generally were the following:-
The defeated countries HAD TO disarm
They HAD TO PAY reparations
They LOST LAND to other (Victorious) countries
Peace Treaties were signed ending the ‘Two World Wars’ in the 20th Century. With regard to WW I, Five of them were signed. The most significant one being the ‘Treaty of Versaille’, which was signed on the 28th of June 1919, with the following conditions being imposed upon Germany:-
Disarmament – Forces limited to 100,000 soldiers, six battleships, NO air force
Reparations – this was eventually set at £6600 million. Afterwards, The Dawes and Young Plans re-scheduled Germany’s payments
Land Lost – Poland gained Posen from Germany, and also gained East Prussia. This became known as the Polish Corridor. Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France. Germany LOST HER COLONIES.
With regard to WW II:-
The “Paris Peace Treaties” were signed on 10 February 1947 following the end of World War II in 1945. The Paris Peace Conference lasted from 29 July until 15 October 1946.
Italy lost the colonies of Italian Libya and Italian East Africa.
Finland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria that were attacked by Germany and conquered had their former borders restored with some changes.
Soviet Union, being the country out of the Allies that was ravaged worst by WW II received an amount equal to US $ 600 million at the rate that existed in 1938, although the Peace Treaty was signed on 10th February 1947.
With the above information regarding the two most important ‘Peace Treaties’ of the 20th century in mind, let us take a look at the “Peace Treaties” that ISRAEL HAS MADE, subsequent to the 4 wars they had to fight in order ‘To keep their Ancestral Land’ that was given back to them.
After the death of Gamal Abdul Nasser in 1970, Anwar Sadat became the third President of Egypt.
Though Menachem Begin was the Founder\Leader of “Herut (Freedom) Party” and subsequently of “Gahal”, he became the 6th PM of Israel in 1977, Leading an ‘Alliance’ called the Likud (Consolidation), initiated by Ariel Sharon, that ultimately ended 3 decades of “Labour Party” dominance in Israeli politics.
In 1978 ‘Secret talks’ between Begin and Sadat were conducted for 12 days at Camp David, the country retreat of US Presidents, with the then President Jimmy Carter also in attendance. Begin came with Ministers Moshe Dayan (Foreign) and Ezer Weizman (Defense) and Sadat had the assistance of Boutros Boutros Gali, who subsequently went onto become the Secretary General of the UN. The result of all that was the “Peace Treaty” of 1979, for which Begin and Sadat became Joint Holders of the “Nobel Prize for Peace”.
Under the “Terms of the Treaty”, brokered by US President Jimmy Carter, ISRAEL was to hand over the “Sinai Peninsula” in its ENTIRETY to Egypt.
As seen above, which was the normal practice throughout human history, it was the vanquished that had to give up ‘Territories’. But here, most probably for the FIRST TIME in human history, the VICTORIOUS PARTY GAVE UP TERRITORY and that also 5 years AFTER the last war they had fought.
All the same, the ‘Peace Treaty with Egypt’ was a watershed moment in the history of the modern Middle East, because it was the first time an Arab state recognized Israel’s legitimacy or ‘Right to EXIST and Israel effectively accepted the “Land for Peace Principle”, as blueprint for resolving the ‘Arab–Israeli conflict’.
As it was Egypt that gave leadership to ALL the wars against Israel in the past, that ‘Treaty’ had far reaching strategic and geopolitical implications.
Almost overnight, Begin’s public image of an ‘irresponsible nationalist radical’ was transformed into that of a “Statesman of Historic Proportions”. This image was reinforced by international recognition which culminated with him being awarded, together with Sadat, the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978.
Yitzak Rabin became the 5th PM of Israel [The First native born PM (01\03\1922), though the Land was called by the former name Palestine then] yet had to resign. Upon his re-election in 1992, he signed 2 “Peace Treaties” with Yasser Arafat that are called ‘Oslo Accords’, under the supervision of Bill Clinton. The First One in Washington D.C. in 1993 and the Second in Taba, Egypt, in 1995, resulting in the ‘recognition’ by the PLO of the State of Israel and the recognition by Israel of the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people and as a partner in negotiations.
Rabin also signed a ‘Peace Treaty’ with Jordan in 1994.
The following quotes are from Wikipedia:-
“The Oslo Accords created a Palestinian Authority tasked with limited self-governance of parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip; and acknowledged the PLO as Israel’s partner in permanent-status negotiations about remaining questions. The most important questions relate to the borders of Israel and Palestine, Israeli settlements, the status of Jerusalem, Israel’s military presence in and control over remaining territories after Israel’s recognition of Palestinian autonomy, and the Palestinian right of return. The Oslo Accords, however, did NOT create a ‘Palestinian state’.
The Accords were strongly opposed by a large portion of the Palestinian population; philosopher Edward Said famously described them as a “Palestinian Versailles”.
When the Oslo Accord was signed in 1993, NEITHER a government, NOR a parliament existed for the Palestinian territories. The Palestinian Authority (PA or PNA) was created BY the 1994 Gaza–Jericho Agreement. Article III.1 reads:
“ISRAEL shall transfer authority as specified in this Agreement FROM the Israeli military government and its Civil Administration TO the Palestinian Authority, HEREBY established, in accordance with Article V of this Agreement, except for the authority that Israel shall continue to exercise as specified in this Agreement.”
When, however, an Israel–Jordan peace treaty was concluded on 26 October 1994, it was without the Palestinians.” (End quote. Highlighting added)
As has been pointed out in the earlier articles of this website, the above quotes also clearly verify that there was NO ‘State or Government’ of Palestinians, in the PAST. The area that King Abdulla 1 called the ‘West Bank’, after illegally capturing it in 1948 was OCCUPIED by Jordon.
Hence in 1967 Israelis captured that AREA FROM the Jordanians.
AFTER 1967 there was FREE MOVEMENT OF JEWISH AND PALESTINIAN PEOPLE FROM THAT AREA (West Bank) TO THE REST OF ISRAEL. In fact Jewish People used to visit Palestinian restaurants to enjoy ‘Hummus’, as the Palestinians are reputed to prepare them the tastiest.
BUT once Yasser Arafat came there after the Oslo Accords and established his Head Office in Ramallah, he declared the AREAS under the PA autonomy ‘out of bounds’ to Jewish People. Thereby he TERMINATED the FREE ACCESS that BOTH Jewish and Palestinian People enjoyed for OVER 25 years, WHEN IT WAS TOTALLY UNDER THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT.
The word ‘apartheid’ is commonly used against the government of Israel by many, due its use by certain media channels. YET, anyone visiting Israel will NOT be able to SEE ANY Notice Boards that state, ‘Out of bounds to Palestinians’ or ‘Palestinians are not allowed here’ or anything of that nature, as there are NONE.
BUT JEWISH PEOPLE CANNOT GO to the areas UNDER the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Any Tour Groups visiting Israel would have noticed that the JEWISH Guides and Drivers GET OFF the buses, when they visit Bethlehem or Jericho and Palestinian Guides and Drives GET IN and carry out the duties, UNTIL the buses come back, out of those areas. YET Palestinian Guides and Drivers CAN GO ALL OVER ISRAEL, WITHOUT ANY HINDRANCE.
Hence there seems to be an ‘apartheid situation’ WITHIN THE P. A. CONTROLLED AREAS.
Moreover there have not only been elected PALESTINIAN Knesset (Israeli Parliament) Members even in the past, but a group of them also happen to be ‘Coalition Partners’ in the CURRENT Israeli Government.
In apartheid South Africa, that was NOT even a ‘wishful dream’, as Native Black People of that era were NOT given the RIGHT to cast any votes in an election.
In the light of that kind of hard core FACTS, the term ‘apartheid’ CANNOT be leveled against the Government of Israel with ANY kind of justification whatsoever.
Besides that, as can be seen above, ISRAEL is the ONLY Country in the ENTIRE human history, that has GIVEN BACK TERRITORIES, as per ‘Peace Accords or Treaties’ that they HAD conquered in wars that they had to fight, in order for SURVIVAL and also has NOT demanded Reparations.
So the question remains as to “WHAT DID ISRAEL GAIN” by making those Peace Treaties?
After the defeats suffered in the 4 previous wars and especially after the debacle of the Yom Kippur war, it is NOT plausible to think that either Egypt or Jordon would have attacked Israel again.
There would have been ‘Trade and Travel Benefits’ between the respective countries. There is also the fact that ‘A door was opened’ for other Arab countries also to follow suit and make ‘Peace Treaties’ with Israel.
A clear example of that is the “Abraham Accords” initiated by President Trump and carried out by the respective Gulf Countries.
Yet the ‘Oslo Accords’ are not only seen as a failure, as far as Israel is concerned, but they also seemed to have created a ‘Trojan Horse’ type of situation, by allowing the PA to be installed in the ‘West Bank’, that as per current circumstances, could enable ‘Hamas’ to gain control of THAT area.
THAT would be quite DANGEROUS for Israel.
The ONLY ‘RAY OF HOPE’ would be Psalms 121 : 4 “HE THAT KEEPETH ISRAEL SHALL NEITHER SLUMBER NOR SLEEP”.