20 Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict
a number of other Arab countries began exploring links with Israel during the decade of the 1990s . The most forthcoming was Mauritania , which became the third Arab state to establish formal diplomatic relations with Israel , though a subsequent change in government there brought the decades-long ties to an abrupt end in 2010 . Others , such as Morocco , Oman , Qatar , and Tunisia , stopped short of full recognition , but , for a time at least , openly sought political or economic ties . A few Arab countries , preferring to operate entirely below the radar , developed points of contact with Israel . These took a variety of forms and sometimes had their ups and downs .
Another opportunity for peace was spurned by the Palestinians in 2000-01 .
When Ehud Barak became prime minister in 1999 , he launched an ambitious agenda . The left-of-center Israeli leader said he would attempt to reach an historic end to the conflict with the Palestinians within thirteen months , picking up where his predecessors had left off , and building on the momentum of the 1991 Madrid Conference , the first peace talks since the Camp David agreement , and the 1993 Oslo Accords , which established a Declaration of Principles between Israel and the Palestinians . As it turned out , he went beyond what anyone in Israel might have thought possible in his willingness to compromise in the pursuit of peace .
With the active support of the Clinton administration , Barak pushed the process as far and as fast as he could . He broke new ground on such infinitely sensitive issues as Jerusalem , for the sake of an agreement . But alas , he and Clinton failed .
Arafat was not ready to engage the process and make it work . Rather than press ahead with the talks , which would have led to the establishment of the first-ever Palestinian state , with its capital in eastern Jerusalem , he walked away , after preposterously trying to persuade President Clinton that there was no historical Jewish link to Jerusalem and dropping the bombshell demand of a so-called