toric nature of the occasion and called for all parties to make the compromises neces-
sary for peace.
Bush told the delegates that the United States would not attempt to impose agree-
ments, but he noted that “territorial compromise” would be necessary—a warning to
Israel that it would have to return most of the lands it had occupied during the 1967
war and to Israel’s Arab neighbors that they would not get back every inch of the lands
they had lost.
Speeches in the following days by delegates from the individual countries offered
no hints of compromise, however, and the conference ended on November 4 without
the convening of bilateral talks that the U.S. and Soviet sponsors had planned. A series
of bilateral and multilateral talks did take place in Washington and Moscow through
May 1992 but produced no firm agreements on any issues.
The Bush administration made no secret that it held Shamir’s government largely
responsible for the failure of the Madrid peace process. Israel refused to participate in some
sessions involving Palestinians, and its expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank,
over explicit U.S. opposition, was widely seen as a provocative act at a sensitive time.
Israeli voters defeated Shamir’s right-leaning government in elections held in June
- The new prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin of the left-leaning Labor Party, then
met with Bush and reached understandings that led to two more rounds of peace talks
in August and October. Although Israel showed a new willingness to compromise, the
negotiations again failed to produce a breakthrough, and the entire Madrid process
collapsed after Bush lost his reelection bid that November. Even so, the year of nego-
tiations did contribute to a changed atmosphere in Israel and among some Arabs that
helped make possible the formal agreements in 1993 through 1995 between Israel and
the Palestinians and Israel and Jordan (Oslo Accords, p. 213; Jordanian-Israeli Peace,
p. 142).
Following are excerpts from the opening speech by U.S. president George H. W.
Bush to the Middle East peace conference, hosted by the United States and the Soviet
Union, held in Madrid, Spain, starting on October 30, 1991.DOCUMENT
Opening Statement by President
George H. W. Bush at the
Madrid Conference
OCTOBER30, 1991We come to Madrid on a mission of hope, to begin work on a just, lasting, and com-
prehensive settlement to the conflict in the Middle East. We come here to seek peace
ARABS AND ISRAELIS 139