ABSTRACT
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict was one of several sources of regional instability during the period, and the launch of the Oslo peace process was far from the only major development in the Middle East of the 1990s. This chapter examines the key developments that opened up the possibilities of a peaceful settlement between Palestinians and Israelis but turned instead into a hostile impasse. It shows that the linkages between the intifada, the Gulf War, and the proposals for peace. The chapter seeks to identify those currents within Palestinian and Israeli society that generated the early momentum for a peaceful settlement and those that contributed to the breakdown of negotiations. The effect of the Palestinian intifada on Israeli society, the dominance of US power in the world, and the election of Labor government in Israel formed part of a series of interconnected developments that contributed to a stunning breakthrough in Palestinian-Israeli relations. The Madrid Conference also focused attention on the Palestinian delegation.
