For an Israeli-Palestinian confederation

Michel Taubmann — You participated in the negotiations with Israel in 1992, 1993, 1994. Would you have imagined at the time the situation that prevails thirty years later?  

Marwan Muasher — Of course not! Remember the Madrid conference in 1991. Jordan was present alongside Syria, Lebanon, and a Palestinian delegation. We received assurances from the Americans regarding a comprehensive settlement of all conflicts. It was a very joyful and hopeful moment. One of the best memories of my career is from 1993: Rabin shaking hands with Arafat in front of the White House. 

M. T. — And what is your worst memory?  

M. M. — There are quite a few, unfortunately! First, that horrible day in 1994 when the Jewish extremist Baruch Goldstein killed 29 Palestinian Muslims at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Another bad memory is: the assassination of Rabin in November 1995. I experienced it up close. As the ambassador of Jordan, I was sitting right next to him that night during the big peace supporters' rally. I left perhaps a minute before he was shot. It probably signaled the beginning of the end of the peace process as we knew it. 

M. T. — How do you explain that the peace with Egypt in 1978 and Jordan in 1994 remained 'cold' peace without the involvement of the peoples or economic dynamics, unlike the normalization with Morocco and the Abraham Accords signed in 2020 with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain?

M. M. — The objectives were very different. Moroccans signed a normalization treaty in exchange for a promise from the Americans to support their claim over Western Sahara. The Emiratis, on the other hand, set aside the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to prioritize economic and security cooperation measures with Israel. As for Jordan, it signed the peace mainly to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state on Jordanian territory. However, over time, as Israel increasingly asserted its refusal to end the occupation and establish a Palestinian state, relations have continued to deteriorate.  

In thirty years, we have not been able to forge the strong economic ties that we had planned to establish within a triangle of Israel/Jordan/Palestine — a triangle that never came to be. The same situation prevails for Egypt fifty years after the signing of the peace treaty. 

M. T. — Of all the people you have met, who impressed you the most with their understanding of the situation?  

M. M. — Undoubtedly, President Clinton. I worked with him first as the spokesperson for the Jordanian delegation before the Oslo Accords and later as ambassador in Washington. A very intelligent and impressive man. He was fully aware of the complex details of the geography and history of the region, for example, the names of Palestinian villages that were to be exchanged with Israel in a peace agreement. He did not read from notes; he knew everything by heart! 

M. T. — Let’s return to the Abraham Accords. Do you consider them positive or …