Annapolis Conference Totally Explained

Everything about Annapolis Conference totally explained

:For the revolutionary legislature of the Colony of Maryland, see Annapolis Convention (1774-1776). ť For the meeting that resulted in the United States Constitutional Convention, see Annapolis Convention (1786)

The Annapolis Conference was a Middle East peace conference held on November 27, 2007, at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, United States. The conference marked the first time a two-state solution was articulated as the mutually agreed-upon outline for addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The conference ended with the issuing of a joint statement from all parties.

Attendees

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice organized and hosted the conference. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and U.S. President George W. Bush attended the meeting. A partial list of over 40 invitees was released on 20 November 2007, including China, the Arab League, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations; most of whom have accepted the invitation. Syria and Saudi Arabia were initially skeptical about participating in the conference, with Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians meeting in Sharm el-Sheik on 22 November 2007 and calling for broad Arab attendance.
Saudi Arabia initially insisted that all 'core issues' should be discussed, the most important of which are borders and Israeli settlements, the status of Jerusalem, and the Palestinian right of return, as a condition for Saudi participation. On 4 November 2007, P.M. Olmert declared that all core issues were on the Annapolis agenda. The Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, Saud al-Faisal, finally announced on 23 November 2007 that he'd participate due to the near-Arab consensus on the summit, following an Arab League meeting in Cairo. On 26 November 2007, it was reported that despite his decision to attend, Saud al-Faisal had announced that he'd neither shake the hand of Ehud Olmert, nor converse with him during the summit, since he's coming for business and not for political plays, while Ehud Olmert said that a hand shake isn't necessary. Although the decision to attend by the Arab League states was supposedly a collective one, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem insisted, following the League meeting, that Syria hadn't yet made a decision due to uncertainty over whether the issue of the Golan Heights would be on the agenda. The rebuttal re-iterated an October 2007 declaration by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Syria has, however, been given informal assurances that it'll be discussed. On 25 November, it was announced that Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad would attend.

Objectives and background

The goal of the conference was to produce a substantive document on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict along the lines of President George W. Bush's Roadmap For Peace, with the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state. A draft document was leaked by Haaretz on 17 November 2007, with the final and forthcoming Annapolis Joint Declaration expected to outline the scope of what will eventually be final peace talks.
   President Abbas and P.M. Olmert had been meeting repeatedly since June 2007 to try and agree on some basic issues ahead of the summit.
   A final round of discussions between Olmert and Abbas was held in Washington D.C. on 26 November 2007, the day prior to the conference.
   The conference on November 27, 2007, took place approximately 30 years after Anwar El Sadat, president of Egypt, visited Israel on November 19, 1977 to sign a peace agreement. and appoximately 60 years after the newly-created United Nations approved the UN Partition Plan (United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181) on November 29, 1947, dividing Palestine (Modern day Jordan and Israel)into two states, one Arab and one Jewish. Jerusalem was to be designated an international city – a corpus separatum – administered by the UN to avoid conflict over its status. The Jewish community accepted the plan, but the Arab League and Arab Higher Committee rejected it.

Positions

Americans

Secretary Rice visited the Middle East on a four day tour of shuttle diplomacy in mid-October to shore up support for the summit, and hinted at the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities (GA), in Nashville, Tennessee on November 13, 2007, that Israelis are prepared to give up the West Bank in exchange for peace. This was Rice's 8th visit to the region during the Bush Administration.

Palestinian

Abbas stated that a clear agenda was necessary for the conference, and affirmed in early October that only a Palestinian state comprising the West Bank and Gaza Strip in their entirety would be acceptable, with any permanent Israeli control of land beyond its 1967 borders subject to discussion on a one-to-one basis. He further demanded that all six central issues be debated at the conference: Jerusalem, refugees and right of return, borders, settlements, water and security.
Abbas has said that he hoped to reach an agreement with Israel by the end of November 2007, which Abbas would then put to a referendum. Furthermore, he's expressed his hope that a final agreement with Israel would be possible within six months of the conference.

Israeli

In October 2007, Prime Minister Olmert indicated that he'd be willing to give parts of East Jerusalem to the Palestinians as part of a broader peace settlement at Annapolis, drawing considerable criticism from right-wing Israeli and foreign Jewish organizations and Christian Zionists.
On November 27, 2007, Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of the Shas party, announced that his party would leave the government coalition, thereby ending the coalition's majority in the Knesset, if Ehud Olmert agreed to divide Jerusalem. Shas minister Eli Yishai explained: "Jerusalem is above all political considerations. I won't help enable concessions on Jerusalem." Olmert's ability to follow through on his earlier comments about concessions in East Jerusalem is therefore in question.

Opening

Prior to the conference, President Bush met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the White House. After meeting with Olmert and Abbas, President Bush read from a joint statement, signed by both parties, supporting a Two-State Solution. "We agreed to immediately launch good faith, bilateral negotiations in order to conclude a peace treaty resolving all outstanding issues, including core issues, without exception," and that, "The final peace settlement will establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people just as Israel is the homeland for the Jewish people."

Reaction

Analysis

The Annapolis Conference differed from previous Middle East peace conferences in several respects:

This was the first time both sides (Israeli and Palestinian) have entered a conference with a common understanding that the final state of Palestinian-Israeli peace will be a two-state solution.
This was the first time Palestinians spoke for themselves, instead of being part of a delegation, such as the Arab League.
This was the most politically fragmented that the Palestinians have been going into a conference.
This is the first time in several decades that the context of the conference didn't include adversarial positions from either the United Nations or the European Union against the Israelis. Going into the conference, the U.N. and E.U. were both largely behind the U.S. effort.
Similarly, the importance of the Quartet on the Middle East has been diminished since it was first formed. At the Annapolis Conference, the U.S. played the major mediator role, with the other three members of the original Quartet assuming lower status positions.
Syria attended the conference in order to have a say in the process, a recognition that the Israelis and Palestinians are making progress and that Syria doesn't want to be left out. Syria's official claim for their attendance is their interest in settling the Golan heights issue, yet in the years preceding the Conference Syria has shown little interest in settling the Golan Heights issue. However, the Syrians didn't send Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, but rather Deputy Minister Faisal Mekdad, to indicate their uncertainty and reluctance regarding the conference.

Protests and boycotts

Hamas and Ali Khamenei of Iran have called for a boycott of the conference, and on November 23 Hamas held a demonstration in the Gaza Strip.
   The president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has denounced the event, stating that "This is a political show for the media which is in Israel's interest".
   On the other hand, Jewish activists and organizations opposed to Israel's concession of any part of Jerusalem or "Judea and Samaria" (the historical term for what has become widely known as the West Bank), in a peace settlement have become increasingly vocal against the Olmert government, with protests planned in front of Israeli embassies in New York and Washington D.C. during the summit. On November 27, 2007, Rabbi Dov Lior of the Yesha Rabbis Council called an "emergency meeting" in order to discuss the upcoming conference. During the meeting, Lior stated: "No leader, in any generation, has the right to give away Eretz Israel… we call on the Jews abroad, and especially on community leaders and rabbis, to join us in our efforts against this treaty and its implications... Together, we'll save the people of Israel from the government's terrible plan." Lior further stated that peace would only be achieved by "[cleansing] the country of Arabs and [resettling] them in the countries where they came from."
   A number of large mainstream American Jewish and Christian groups joined together with a majority of Knesset to oppose any negotiation that would include altering Jerusalem's status. They formed the Coordinating Council on Jerusalem.

Support

Organizations that approve of the conference are also mobilizing and preparing to demonstrate their support for the summit. The United Nations is preparing a resolution to be adopted by the Security Council on November 30, 2007 expressing support for the outcome of the conference. The resolution was withdrawn after Israel raised complaints.

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