home > by publication type > task force reports > U.S. Middle East Policy and the Peace Process
Email
| Director: | Henry Siegman, Former Senior Fellow and Director for the U.S./Middle East Project, Council on Foreign Relations |
|---|
| Publisher: | Council on Foreign Relations Press |
|---|
Release Date: July 1997
46 pages
ISBN 0876092040
$5.00
Task Force Report No. 15
The collapse of confidence between Israelis and Palestinians over the past year and the ability of opponents of peace on both sides to exploit incremental measures to their advantage have brought the Middle East peace process to a dangerous impasse. The chief principles of U.S. policy are no longer effective: Incrementalism, far from building confidence, threatens to undermine it further; and an American role limited to facilitation will not enable the parties to resume successful negotiations. Therefore, intensive diplomatic efforts by the United States are needed to join the parties in the hopes of establishing a new Declaration of Principles, which would set the framework for final-status negotiations.
This 1997 Independent Task Force, sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, calls for a bold American initiative to help Israel and Palestine reach an agreement on the broad contours of a final settlement that can satisfy the minimal aspirations of both parties. Headed by Project Coordinator Henry Siegman, the report establishes the goals of the Declaration of Principles as framing the difficult issues of settlements, boundaries, and Jerusalem “in the context of agreed general goals.” Moreover, the report asserts that only the promise that these aspirations are achievable can revitalize the peace process and sustain it to a successful conclusion, reinforcing the utter importance of establishing a realistic Declaration.
SPENCER ABRAHAM is U.S. Senator from Michigan (R). He was Executive Director of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
STEPHEN P. COHEN is President of the Institute for Middle East Peace and Development.
LESTER CROWN is the Chairman of the Executive Committee of General Dynamics.
KENNETH DUBERSTEIN is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Duberstein Group, Inc. He is the former Chief of Staff to President Reagan.
RICHARD M. FAIRBANKS III is Managing Director for Domestic and International Issues at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He served as Special Negotiator for the Middle East Peace Process from 1982 to 1983 and Ambassador at Large from 1982 to 1985.
HENRY A. GRUNWALD* is the former Editor-in-Chief of Time Inc. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to Austria.
RITA E. HAUSER is President of the Hauser Foundation, Inc., and Chair, International Peace Academy.
ROBERT K. LIFTON is Chairman of the Board of Medis El, Ltd. He is a former President of the American Jewish Congress.
RICHARD W. MURPHY is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs from 1983 to 1989.
LOUIS PERLMUTTER* is Managing Director at Lazard Freres & Co. LLC. He is former Chairman of the Board of Brandeis University.
LESTER POLLACK is Managing Director at Lazard Freres & Co. LLC. He is former Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
ROBERT L. ROSEN is a General Partner at RLR Partners.
GEORGE SALEM is a Professional Corporation Partner at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld, LLP. He served as Solicitor of Labor at the U.S. Department of Labor.
ROBERT SATLOFF is Executive Director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
BRENT SCOWCROFT* is President of the Forum for International Policy and President of the Scowcroft Group. He served as National Security Advisor to President Bush from 1988 to 1992.
HENRY SIEGMAN* is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and Director of the U.S./Middle East Project. He served as National Executive Director of the American Jewish Congress from 1978 to 1993.
SHIBLEY TELHAMI* is Director of Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
JOHN WATERBURY is Director of the Center of International Studies at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
DOV ZAKHEIM* is Chief Executive Officer of SPC International. He was Deputy Under Secretary for Planning and Resources under President Reagan from 1981 to 1987.
MORTIMER B. ZUCKERMAN is Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of U.S. News and World Report and Chairman of Boston Properties Inc.
HERMANN EILTS is a former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
RASHID KHALIDI* is the Director of the Center for International Studies at the University of Chicago.
PHEBE MARR is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University. Note: Institutional affiliations are for identification purposes only.
Experts who were invited to address the Task Force and who endorsed this Report.
*Concurs with the Report but submitted an Additional View.
Dissenting Views
MORTIMER B. ZUCKERMAN
AND LESTER POLLACK
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1.212.434.9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.
In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
Complete list of CFR Books
The report of this bipartisan Task Force of distinguished leaders and experts represents a strong consensus on the importance of repairing America's immigration policy. It makes the case that maintaining America's political and economic leadership depends on attracting talented and hard-working immigrants, and on securing the country's borders in a smart, effective, and humane way.
This report finds that nuclear weapons will remain a fundamental element of U.S. national security in the near term, and makes recommendations on how to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. deterrent nuclear force, prevent nuclear terrorism, and strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR
Complete list of Task Force reports
Identifying international threats and acting on them may be the most difficult job for U.S. policymakers. This report
provides an actionable road map for managing international threats before they erupt into crises and makes a strong case that preventive action is not a luxury but a necessity.
For more than a decade, the United States has mostly watched from the sidelines as Asian countries organize themselves into an alphabet soup of new multilateral groups. In this report, the authors review the relationship between pan-Asian and trans-Pacific institutions and suggest policy guidelines for a new U.S. approach to this new Asian landscape.
Complete list of Council Special Reports
To request permission to reprint or reuse CFR material, please fill out this permissions request form (PDF), referring to the instructions on page 1.
Copyright 2009 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.