The peace process began with an American initiative through former United States President George Bush's speech to the Congress on 6 March 1991. The peace process became feasible at that time due to international and regional developments that paved the way for it, such as the Palestinian Intifada of 1987, which reflected the aspirations and insistence of the Palestinian people to end the Israeli military occupation and achieve independence for Palestine. This is in addition to the demise of the Soviet Union, which left the Palestinians and some Arab states without a strong international ally. Moreover, the Arab world accused the United States of having double standards in its foreign policy after the Gulf War against Iraq's occupation of Kuwait, resulting in U.S. efforts to work on the Palestinian issue.
After 18 visits by then U.S. Secretary of State James Baker to the region, where he met with Israelis and Palestinians as well as heads of other Arab states, an invitation letter was sent to hold the Madrid Conference for Middle East Peace on 19 October 1991 with joint American-Soviet sponsorship. The contents of the Joint Invitation Letter were considered the basic reference for the peace process. Furthermore, the United States sent a Letter of Assurances to the invited states participating in the peace process which became a reference point for U.S. relations with those states wherein the U.S. played the role of the peace process sponsor.
The Opening Conference of Madrid on 30 October 1991 included important speeches by United States President George Bush, USSR President Michael Gorbachev, and Palestinian Delegation Head Haider Abdul Shafi, as well as speeches by delegation heads including Israel, Syria and Lebanon.
According to the Letter of Invitation, bilateral negotiations are to follow the Madrid Conference between Israel and each of the Palestinians, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. In addition, multi-lateral negotiations began in Moscow on 28 January 1992. These included regional committees such as regional economic development, environment, water and refugees. The Palestinian-Israeli bilateral negotiations were held in 10 rounds within two years ending without clinching an agreement or an understanding. The positions of each side were summarized in a Palestinian document and an Israeli document.
During the 10 rounds of the Palestinian-Israeli talks, there was no indication for a breakthrough, and the issue of the illegal Jewish-Israeli settlement in Palestinian territory became the thorniest problem of dispute.
Suddenly, it was declared that secret back-channel negotiations were taking place between the two sides in Oslo, Norway. Through these talks, Palestinians and Israelis reached an agreement called the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangement (D.O.P), which was signed by PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at the White House on 13 September 1993.
The D.O.P stipulated that there should be a five-year interim period during which a Palestinian authority would be established in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. During those five years, both sides would conduct final-status negotiations on issues including Jerusalem, refugees, borders and Jewish-Israeli settlements. The final outcome of final status should be based on United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338.
Negotiations continued during that period until the Palestinian-Israeli Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip was reached on 28 September 1995 to govern the relationship between Palestinians and Israelis during the five-year interim period. Nonetheless, the implementation of the interim agreement was not smooth. There were many difficulties in defining and translating the agreement in addition to many obstacles resulting from opposition of this agreement from both sides.
In Israel, and after the signing of the D.O.P agreement, an Israeli terrorist killed more than 29 Palestinians while praying at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. Another Israeli terrorist assassinated then Israeli Prime Minister Rabin on the basis of opposing the peace deals Rabin had signed.
There were also a number of Palestinian revenge operations that materialized through suicide bombing operations conducted by Palestinian political Islamist groups on the basis of revenge and opposition to the peace agreement.
Following the change in the Israeli government, the new Israeli Likud Government led by Binyamin Netanyahu forced re-negotiations on the means to implement the remaining aspects in the interim agreement. This period culminated in the Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron in January 1997 and the Wye River Memorandum signed by Netanyahu and Arafat in October 1998.
A period of calm and security prevailed after the Palestinian Authority succeeded in stopping the Palestinian opposition groups and activities for four years which ended with the return of the conflict between the two sides after the failure of the Camp David negotiations for a final-solution under the direct auspices and supervision of then United States President Bill Clinton, who also presented bridging proposals, known as Clinton's Ideas, and specifically after a provocative visit by then Israeli right-wing opposition leader Ariel Sharon, now prime minister, to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on 29 September 2000. The visit resulted in large peaceful Palestinian protests and demonstration, which Israel resisted with fatal force leading to the daily killing of an average of 10 Palestinians. This was the beginning of the return of a state of violent conflict between the two sides instead of the peaceful negotiations, which lasted most of the last decade.
Clinton interfered to end the violence by holding the Sharm el-Sheikh Summit on 17 October 2000, which resulted in Clinton's declaration to form a fact-finding committee, headed by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell. The committee issued The Report of the Sharm El-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee, which became known as the Mitchell Report, on 30 April 2001.
