Israeli Peace Initiative

The Israeli Peace Initiative is a civic and political peace proposal developed in Israel as a response to the Arab Peace Initiative, which was first issued by the Arab League in 2002 and reaffirmed in 2007. The proposal was publicly released on 6 April 2011 and presented an Israeli vision for a negotiated regional settlement. It was associated with figures from Israel's political left and security establishment rather than with a commercial company or a formal state institution. The initiative sought to translate the broad principles of the Arab Peace Initiative into a more specific Israeli position. Its stated strategic objective was a historic compromise that would end the region's conflicts and claims, provide security, enable normalized relations between Israel and Arab and Islamic countries, and support regional economic and social development. The document treated negotiations and reciprocal arrangements—not military victory—as the means of achieving a durable settlement. At the center of the plan was a two-state framework. Israel would recognize Palestine as the nation-state of the Palestinian people, while Palestine would recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. The proposed Palestinian state would be sovereign, viable, independent, and demilitarized, comprising the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel would withdraw from those territories, subject to agreed border modifications and security arrangements. The plan proposed borders based on the lines of 4 June 1967, with one-to-one land swaps limited to no more than 7 percent of the West Bank and a territorial connection between Gaza and the West Bank under de facto Palestinian control. Jerusalem was addressed through a division based broadly on demographic and neighborhood lines. Jewish neighborhoods would remain under Israeli sovereignty and Arab neighborhoods would come under Palestinian sovereignty. The Jewish Quarter of the Old City and the Western Wall would remain under Israeli sovereignty, while the Temple Mount would have no exclusive sovereignty—or could be described as being under God's sovereignty. Islamic holy sites would be administered by a Muslim Waqf, and the plan envisaged special arrangements and an Israeli-international monitoring committee for the holy places. The initiative proposed a negotiated solution to the Palestinian refugee issue. Refugees would receive compensation and other forms of assistance, with return primarily to the future Palestinian state and territories transferred to it. Only a symbolic number would be admitted to Israel, with the amount to be agreed. The text also acknowledged the suffering of Jewish refugees from Arab and Muslim countries, although its operational provisions focused principally on Palestinian refugees. Beyond the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the proposal covered Syria and Lebanon. It called for an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights to a border based on 4 June 1967, with limited reciprocal adjustments, a one-to-one territorial exchange principle, phased implementation over no more than five years, and mutually agreed demilitarization and international peacekeeping arrangements. With Lebanon, it emphasized a permanent settlement based on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 and the full exercise of Lebanese state sovereignty through the Lebanese Army. The document also envisaged regional security mechanisms, cooperation against terrorism and other transnational threats, environmental and criminal-risk coordination, and extensive economic cooperation in infrastructure, agriculture, industry, tourism, energy, and water. It proposed eventual development of a Middle Eastern economic bloc with links to the European Union, the United States, and the wider international community. Diplomatic normalization would proceed gradually, beginning with negotiations and expanding toward diplomatic relations, open borders, and economic ties as agreements were implemented. Forty people signed or endorsed the initiative. The signatories included former heads of Shin Bet and Mossad, a former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, former ministers, a former general, and Yuval Rabin, the son of assassinated Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. The initiative is best understood as a policy platform and public advocacy effort rather than as a product brand, corporation, or government program. Its current organizational status, continuing operations, and measurable political impact are not established by the supplied sources.

The Israeli Peace Initiative emerged as an Israeli response to the Arab Peace Initiative, a regional diplomatic proposal originally adopted by the Arab League in 2002 and reaffirmed in 2007. Whereas the Arab proposal offered normalization with Israel in return for an Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967 and a negotiated solution to the Palestinian refugee question, the Israeli initiative attempted to articulate how an Israeli political constituency might accept and operationalize a regional settlement. The document was released on 6 April 2011. It described peace as a strategic Israeli objective and framed a permanent settlement as requiring reciprocal steps: Israeli withdrawal, security guarantees, normalized relations, and the termination of outstanding claims and conflicts. The initiative rejected the idea that military force alone could create a durable regional order and emphasized negotiated agreements with Arab states and Palestinian representatives. Its Israeli-Palestinian provisions were based on two states for two peoples. The proposed Palestinian state would include the West Bank and Gaza Strip and would be sovereign, viable, independent, and demilitarized, with internal security forces and international assistance for border security and counterterrorism. The territorial framework used the 4 June 1967 lines as its basis, while permitting agreed adjustments through one-to-one land swaps. Those swaps were capped at 7 percent of the West Bank, and the plan called for a territorial link between Gaza and the West Bank. Jerusalem was to become the capital of both states through a division of sovereignty between Jewish and Arab neighborhoods. The Western Wall and Jewish Quarter of the Old City would remain under Israeli sovereignty. The Temple Mount would be placed outside exclusive national sovereignty, described alternatively as having no sovereignty or as being under divine sovereignty. Islamic holy places would be administered by a Muslim Waqf, while Jewish holy places and interests would be administered by Israel under special arrangements. The proposal also contemplated international and Israeli monitoring. The refugee provisions called for a negotiated and regionally supported solution. International and Israeli funding would support compensation for refugees in their countries of residence. Return would be directed primarily to the Palestinian state and territories transferred to it, with only a symbolic number of refugees admitted to Israel. The text acknowledged the historical suffering of both Palestinian refugees and Jewish refugees from Arab and Muslim countries, but supplied more detailed mechanisms for the Palestinian refugee issue. The initiative extended beyond the Palestinian track. For Syria, it proposed an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights toward the 4 June 1967 boundary, with limited adjustments and one-to-one territorial exchanges reflecting the 1923 international border. Implementation would occur in phases over a period not exceeding five years, alongside mutually agreed demilitarization and possible international peacekeeping forces. For Lebanon, it relied on a settlement based on Security Council Resolution 1701 and called for Lebanon to exercise full sovereignty through its national army. The broader regional architecture included mechanisms for collective security, cooperation against terrorism, crime, piracy, guerrilla activity, and environmental threats, as well as projects involving water, energy, transportation, agriculture, industry, and tourism. The initiative imagined a future Middle Eastern economic bloc connected to major international partners. Diplomatic normalization was to develop gradually from the launch of negotiations to full diplomatic, border, and economic relations as agreements were concluded and implemented. The proposal was publicly associated with 40 signatories from Israel's political left and security establishment. They included former Shin Bet chiefs Yaakov Peri and Ami Ayalon, former Mossad chief Danny Yatom, former Israel Defense Forces chief Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, General (res.) Amram Mitzna, former minister Moshe Shahal, and Yuval Rabin. The available reference material does not establish a formal corporate structure, a continuing executive team, commercial activity, or a definitive present-day operating status. Its principal historical significance lies in presenting a detailed Israeli counterpart to the Arab Peace Initiative.

• 2011

  Israeli Peace Initiative released

  [1]Israeli Peace Initiativeen.wikipedia.org

  The Israeli response was published on 6 April 2011, setting out principles for Israeli-Palestinian, Israeli-Syrian, Israeli-Lebanese, and regional arrangements.

• 2007

  Arab Peace Initiative reaffirmed

  [1]Israeli Peace Initiativeen.wikipedia.org

  The Arab Peace Initiative was reaffirmed, maintaining the diplomatic context for an Israeli counterpart proposal.

• 2002

  Arab Peace Initiative first issued

  [1]Israeli Peace Initiativeen.wikipedia.org

  The Arab League introduced the regional peace framework to which the Israeli Peace Initiative would later respond.

An Israeli civic and policy initiative positioned as an Israeli response to the Arab Peace Initiative and as a detailed framework for negotiated regional peace.

• Policy proposal · 2011

  Israeli Peace Initiative

  The initiative's principal offering is a comprehensive policy document proposing a negotiated regional settlement. It covers two states for two peoples, Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza, border adjustments, arrangements for Jerusalem and its holy places, a negotiated refugee solution, withdrawal from the Golan Heights, a Lebanon track based on Resolution 1701, regional security cooperation, economic integration, and gradual normalization between Israel and Arab and Islamic countries.

• 2011Public presentation of the Israeli Peace Initiative

  Israel · Palestinian territories · Middle East

  The initiative was presented as an Israeli civic and political response to the Arab Peace Initiative, seeking to demonstrate that an Israeli framework for regional peace could address security, borders, Jerusalem, refugees, Syria, Lebanon, and normalization.

  Outcome. The proposal secured the endorsement of 40 Israeli figures, but the supplied sources do not document formal adoption by the Israeli government or implementation through final-status agreements.

  Source

• 2011

  Offer an Israeli counterpart to the Arab Peace InitiativeStrategy

  Background

  The proposal was developed in the context of the Arab Peace Initiative and sought to express an Israeli vision of a comprehensive regional settlement.

  Action taken

  The initiative accepted the Arab Peace Initiative as a framework for negotiations while adding Israeli positions on borders, security, Jerusalem, refugees, Syria, Lebanon, regional cooperation, and normalization.

  Aftermath

  It became a documented platform associated with Israeli left-wing and security-establishment figures. No implementation or government adoption is established by the supplied sources.

  Source

1. 1Israeli Peace Initiativeen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Yozmimyozmim.org