What was the Tenet Plan by US CIA Director George Tenet?
US Government Photo
George J. Tenet
The Tenet work plan for a Mideast cease-fire, advanced by the US Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet on June 10, 2001, has not been made public as a formal document. The objective of the plan was to get the security organizations of Israel and of the Palestinian Authority to reaffirm their commitment to the security agreements forged at Sharm al-Sheikh in October 2000 which were then embedded in the Mitchell Report of April 2001.
The operational premise of the workplan is that the two sides will have a cease-fire, and a joint security committee will then resolve any issues that may arise during the implementation of “specific, concrete, and realistic security steps” to reestablish security cooperation and the situation on the ground as they existed prior to the start of the al-Aqsa intifada September 28, 2000. Tenet’s main goal was to put in place a cease-fire that would allow for implementation of the Mitchell report.
The Tenet Plan is very detailed, listing specific steps and points of agreement to resume security cooperation, enforce strict adherence to the cease-fire,suppress terrorism, and redeploy the IDF to positions as of September 28, 2000. The key elements are:
- An immediate cessation of hostilities, the arrest of terrorists by the Palestinians and efforts to stop anti-Israel incitement in Palestinian media
- Israel would ease travel restrictions and pull its troops back from Palestinian population centers, after the Palestinian steps against terrorists
- A cooling-off period before implementing peacemaking suggestions from the Mitchell Commission
The Tenet Plan was scheduled to start on June 13, 2001. At the insistence of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the Tenet Plan assumed a period of seven days without attacks as a condition for starting the implementation. The Palestinians have not been able or willing to stop their attacks for a week, so the process never started. Even during the calmest periods, there was enough violence to render the rest of the plan moot. In early 2002, renewed severe violence by Palestinian terrorists led to stepped-up Israeli military operations in the territories, including invasion of refugee camps looking for terrorist staging facilities. The Tenet Plan was again introduced as a means to restore the cease-fire and work toward resolution of the conflict.