Why Israeli-Palestinian Peace Plans Fail

The staggering violence between Israelis and Palestinians over the past month has rekindled a question long vexing professionals in the negotiating business: Why have efforts to mediate peace between the two sides failed again and again?

To explore that question, we look back to an initiative 20 years ago known as the road map, which seemed to hold particular promise. Sponsored by some of the world’s major players—The United States, Russia, The United Nations and the European Union—the road map sketched out a two-year path to peace that included independence for the Palestinians and security assurances for Israel.

But, like previous peace plans, this one also was never implemented.

Peter Bartu was a political adviser to the United Nations in Jerusalem at the time and helped mediate between Israelis and Palestinians. The story he tells on the show this week provides a forensic analysis of one particular plan that failed. But it also helps explain a broader history of diplomatic failures in the region.

One of Bartu’s revelations: British Prime Minister Tony Blair pushed the United States to accept the road map in exchange for supporting the United States’ invasion of Iraq. But once the invasion got underway and troops became bogged down, the U.S. lost interest in the road map. 

Bartu is now a Senior Research Scholar at the University of California Berkeley Center for Middle Eastern Studies and a Lecturer in the school’s Global Studies program. 

The Negotiators, hosted by Foreign Policy’s Jenn Williams, is a collaboration between Doha Debates and Foreign Policy.