Volume seventeen of this series covers the second half of the term of office of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (January 1998 May 1999). The main diplomatic events of this period were the negotiations and the conclusion of the Wye River Plantation Memorandum, which was aimed at putting the peace process back on track. But domestic pressures on the Netanyahu Cabinet in fact thwarted the implementation of this accord and the government decided to dissolve the Knesset in late December 1998.
The year started with combined American-European-Jordanian and Egyptian efforts to resume the peace process after the implementation of the Hebron Protocol of January 1997. These accords specified additional FRDs (Further Redeployments) in return for Palestinian commitments in many areas, including security, limitations on the numbers of the Palestinian police, seizure of weapons, arrest of terrorists, end of incitement and virulent anti-Israeli propaganda. All this was included in what the prime minister often referred to as the principle of reciprocity. The Palestinians demanded release of prisoners and a freeze on settlement building and expansion. There was also much controversy over Jerusalem, where Israel objected to Palestinian diplomatic activities carried out from the Orient House and the Palestinians, supported by the international community, objected to the Israeli construction in Har Homa.
After many efforts to resume the negotiations, which took place in Washington, London, Cairo and Amman, the parties finally accepted an Israeli idea to hold Camp David type negotiations. These took place near Washington, DC and resulted in the signing of the Wye River Memorandum. It specified the next moves in all major issues and determined that final status negotiations should commence soon. The United States was accorded a special role monitoring as it were the implementation of the accord. But internal pressures on the prime minister as well as Palestinian threats to proclaim an independent Palestinian state in May 1999 derailed the implementation of the accord after an initial Israeli withdrawal.
The government and the opposition decided to dissolve the Knesset and call for elections on 17 May 1999. In effect, diplomacy almost ground to a halt between December 1998 and the formation of the new Barak government in July 1999.
This volume also deals with additional issues such as withdrawal of the IDF from the security zone in southern Lebanon, efforts to rehabilitate Israel-Jordan relations after the Mashal Affair of September 1997, attempts by the European Community to propose its own interpretation on the future of Jerusalem and Palestinian violations of the various Oslo Accords. Attention is also focused on Israeli efforts to create a new relationship with the Russian Federation in an effort to stem leakage of military technology to Iraq and Iran from Russian companies.
As always, at the center of Israels diplomacy is the special relationship with the United States. On 30 October 1999, Israel and the United states signed a major strategic cooperation agreement that elevated the security ties between the two nations. But there were also strains with Washington on the settlement issue and the slow pace of the peace process.
Finally, this period is noted by a relative absence of terrorist acts inside Israel and attacks on Israelis in the territories. This was due mainly to counter-measures by Israel, the vigilance of all its security bodies and also due to willingness by the Palestinian Authority to cooperate with Israeli security arms for the prevention of terror.