A grudging handshake on the White House lawn promised two peoples what they so desperately craved: for the Palestinians, a state of their own, for the Israelis, peace and quiet. Soon after, the two sides returned to violence.
That squandered moment of hope in 1993 has been the trend for 40 years since Israel seized the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt in the Six Day War. As Palestinians and Israelis marked the anniversary yesterday of the start of that war, a majority of both now favor two states side by side -- a goal that remains frustratingly out of reach.
On Sept. 13, 1993, then-US president Bill Clinton nudged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the direction of Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin after the two signed the first-ever agreement between their two peoples -- a framework for peace. Rabin needed a push from his foreign minister to extend his hand to Arafat.
The reluctant handshake now seems like an omen that things would not go so smoothly.
After five years of largely fruitless negotiations, the peace process gave way to violence. It has been the pattern since 1967: brief high points overwhelmed in a sea of bloody Palestinian attacks and Israeli military operations and restrictions.
SHOCK VICTORY
After Israel routed Egypt and Syria and pushed the Jordanian military out of east Jerusalem and the West Bank, Israelis and Palestinians were in contrasting states of shock.
Israelis by the tens of thousands streamed to Jerusalem to see and touch the holiest site in Judaism, the Western Wall, off limits to them and under Jordanian control since 1949. Others traveled to biblical sites in the West Bank. The ecstasy was so great that many talked of the coming of the Messiah.
At the same time, Palestinians cowered in their houses, many expecting pain and death at the hands of the Israeli military.
At first, Israelis did not accept that there was such a thing as a Palestinian people. Then they believed that if they treated the Palestinians well enough, they would drop the political ambitions of exiled leaders like Arafat.
In June 1987, the Israeli Civil Administration, an arm of the military, put out a booklet trumpeting Israel's accomplishments during its two decades in control of the West Bank and Gaza, giving the Palestinian people roads, schools, hospitals and prosperity.
But Palestinians chafed under the occupation, and just five months later the situation blew up. Gaza, then the West Bank, erupted in riots. Israeli forces tried to put them down, killing demonstrators throwing rocks and firebombs.
OCCUPATION
At the center of the uprising were young Palestinians who grew up under Israeli occupation and demanded its end. The violence forced Israel into negotiations with Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization, leading to that handshake on the White House lawn.
Arafat made a triumphant return to Gaza in 1994, and both sides felt peace was on the way. They were wrong.
Agreements were negotiated but not fully implemented. Israel pulled out of West Bank cities and refugee camps, but kept a tight hold on Palestinian life. Palestinians smuggled large quantities of weapons into their areas, preparing for more clashes. When violence erupted again in September 2000, it seemed inevitable.
The last seven years have seen more than 100 Palestinian suicide bombing attacks against Israelis and intense Israeli military incursions in the West Bank and Gaza.
Even Israel's unilateral pullout from Gaza in 2005 didn't stem the chaos, with the coastal strip deteriorating into anarchic world of gang wars and attacks on Israel that invite retaliation.
STUMBLING BLOCKS
Years of polls show both sides want a state living in peace next to the other state, but their leaders have proved unable to overcome the historic stumbling blocks, especially control over Jerusalem and a solution for Palestinian refugees from the 1948-1949 war that followed Israel's creation.
Israel's grim reality is typified by extreme security -- guards checking bags for bombs at the entrances to buildings, ex-generals routinely elected to positions of leadership, the military maintaining a strong influence in the country.
Palestinians suffer daily. Israeli roadblocks stop them from moving freely in the West Bank, Gaza is often cut off from the world, their economy is stifled and their lives are dominated by the ever-present Israeli soldier, bureaucrat or roadblock.
Now Israel is building a barrier along the West Bank, ostensibly to stop suicide bombers from entering Israel. It's a wall that marks a border in time -- hopes of peaceful coexistence in the past, a reality of violence and hatred in the present.
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