Word: gaza
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Under the Camp David accords, hammered out by Israel, Egypt and the U.S. in 1978, that reconciliation was supposed to be accomplished by Israeli-Arab negotiations aimed at granting some form of self-government to the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza during a five-year transition period. The final status of the territories was to be determined by further negotiations that would not begin until the autonomy arrangements were in effect. So far, however, the autonomy talks have been supported in the Arab world only by Egypt, and even the Egyptian-Israeli negotiations have been suspended since April...
...President first made clear what the U.S. would not accept. One was the opening of any more Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. Since 1967 Israel has established roughly 100 settlements in those territories, housing about 30,000 people. Arabs fear that the purpose of the settlements is to tie the territories so closely to Israel that they can never be detached. Said Reagan: "The immediate adoption of a settlement freeze by Israel, more than any other action, could create the confidence needed for wider participation in these [autonomy] talks...
Reagan also declared bluntly that "the United States will not support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, and we will not support annexation or permanent control by Israel." As for the final status of the territories, Reagan asserted, in perhaps the most significant sentence of his address, "It is the firm view of the United States that self-government by the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza in association with Jordan offers the best chance for a durable, just and lasting peace." He called specifically on Jordan and representatives of the Palestinians...
...expert consensus on the necessary and the possible that has evolved in recent years. But the President went further than any of his predecessors in embracing a broadly defined concept of Palestinian autonomy as a goal that the U.S. should promote. His view that the West Bank and Gaza should be linked to Jordan was another proposal that the U.S. had not adopted officially before; both Carter and Reagan had previously declined to suggest what the final status of those territories should...
...only that "Jerusalem must remain undivided, but its final status should be decided through negotiations." In his letter to Begin, according to the Israelis, Reagan proposed to let the Arab inhabitants of East Jerusalem vote in elections to set up a self-governing council for the West Bank and Gaza, an idea that the Israelis have consistently opposed...