Introduction

This chapter attempts to provide a somewhat different dimension. It treats the peace proposals of the various actors who have a meaningful impact on the peace process. The principal actors in the area itself, of course, are Israel, the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Arabs and, outside the Middle East, the United States, the Soviet Union and Western Europe. The chapter examine the character of each plan, its commonalities/ incompatibilities with others, and finally the prospects of its being implemented. The two major actors in the Palestinian conflict are the Palestinians and the Israelis. Popular identification of it as the ‘Arab-Israeli’ conflict has, of course, always clouded this fact. The formulas for peace of both Israelis and Palestinians were, of course, mutually exclusive from the beginning. They have not changed their respective positions very much in the meantime. As for the non-contiguous Arab states, peace with Israel really means a resolution of the Palestinian conflict.