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Abstract

Nine years after the Oslo Agreements, promises of peace have a bitter aftertaste. Israelis and Palestinians are caught in a morbid treadmill of attacks and reprisals, suicide operations and 'targeted assassinations'. The West Bank is in effect totally reoccupied and the risks taken for peace have been in vain. The idea that the peace process is dead and buried is preponderant: dead in July 2000 at Camp David, when the two parties confronted the fundamental issues for the first time, and buried afterwards by Sharon government. The failure is for all to see. It is possible to debate the causes-to ponder what happened in Camp David. But beyond these interrogations, the question of interpretation arises: the lessons for the two parties on what has been called a 'tragedy of errors. This paper tries to show how the most radical interpretation of the failure has taken root in Israel, why this has happened, and looks at the consequences.

Marius Schattner is the correspondant of the AFP in Israel.