"Land for Peace" is the premise behind the Middle East Peace Process. Unfortunately, Israel's efforts to move toward peace with the Palestinians have often been met with an increase in terrorist attacks.

Signing of the Declaration of Principles Led to Increased Terrorism

The Declaration of Principles was signed in 1993.

The signing of this Declaration was meant to be the first step on a path toward a permanent Peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians. Unfortunately, this movement toward peace was met with a dramatic increase in Arab terrorist attacks against Israel.

Source: Myths and Facts, http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Terrorism/terrchart.html

Camp David Offer of a Palestinian State Led to Increased Terrorism

From July 11-25, 2000, U.S. President Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat tried to reach a peace agreement at Camp David.

At this Camp David meeting, Yasser Arafat was offered, for the second time in fifty years, a Palestinian State, comprised on 97% of the West Bank and all of Gaza with sovereignty over half of Jerusalem including the Temple Mount, and $30 billion in world economic aid. Arafat refused the offer.

To divert attention away from his refusal of the Camp David offer of a Palestinian State, Arafat instigated violent riots against Israel. The violence, often referred to as the Al-Aksa Intifada, began in late September 2000.

Imad Faluji, the Palestinian Authority Communications Minister, admitted: "It [Al-Aksa Intifada] had been planned since Chairman Arafat’s return from Camp David, when he turned the tables on the former US president and rejected the American conditions."

On September 29, the Voice of Palestine, the PA's official radio station, sent out calls "to all Palestinians to come and defend the al-Aksa mosque.” The PA closed its schools and bused Palestinian students to the Temple Mount to participate in the riots.

The September-October riots consisted both of stone-throwing Palestinian youth and of gun-wielding Tanzim fighters. Tanzim is a loosely organized Fatah (Palestinian Authority) militia that is nominally under Marwan Barghouti's control and armed with weapons provided by Yasser Arafat.

Unilateral Ceasefires Led to Increased Terrorism

The riots begun in September 2000 dissolved into a series of terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians and guerilla attacks against Israeli soldiers. 471 Israelis lost their lives in the first 18 months of this violence.

In the midst of constant terrorist attacks and Israeli retaliatory attacks, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided, on May 22, 2001, to declare a unilateral cease-fire. The aim of the cease-fire was to calm the situation and the hope was that the Palestinians would reciprocate by ending their violent attacks against Israelis. In response, the Palestinians intensified the level of violence and Yasser Arafat did nothing to stop or discourage the attacks. Despite more than 70 attacks in the next 10 days, Israel showed restraint and adhered to the cease-fire. The culmination of Palestinian terror during the Israeli cease-fire was the suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv disco on June 1 that killed 20 people and injured more than 90, mostly teenagers. Even after this horrendous attack, Israel showed restraint and did not retaliate.

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