It was supposed to be a harbinger of peace, but it never worked out that way. The entire thing was an Arafat ruse. The Palestinians killed the Oslo Accords before the ink on Yasser Arafat’s signature was dry.
That famous handshake. It happened thirty years ago, September 13, 1993. When I close my eyes, I can still see the supposedly reformed terrorist Arafat grasping the palm of Prime Minister Rabin. I remember saying the Shehecheyanu prayer, thanking God for keeping me alive and letting me see this glorious day.
The whole world was full of optimism. Even Clinton’s Secretary of State, the usually dour Warren Christopher, stepped up to the microphone to gloat, saying the impossible was now possible. Like so many who believed they negotiated a peace, Christopher was wrong.
On that day, Israeli supporters let themselves believe that 45 years of attacks against Israel were over; peace was finally within arm’s reach.
But it wasn’t in arms reach. Rabin didn’t want to shake Arafat’s hand, thinking that, once a bloody terrorist who killed.Israelis always a bloody terrorist who kills.Israelis. He also believed that nothing would come from the agreement. But after some pressure from American President Bubba Clinton, Rabin gave in. He would shake Arafat’s hand but take some over-the-counter nausea medicine first.
Arafat had a wide grin. Rabin looked as if Arafat had something gross in his hand.
As part of Oslo, the two parties signed “Letters of Mutual Recognition”—the Israeli government recognized the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. The letters also required that the PLO’s Palestinian National Charter (PNC) be amended to recognize Israel’s right to exist and renounce violence. This was never done. The original Charter stands to this day.
Some “highlights” of what still exists in the PNC despite a promise for them to be removed include:
- “The partition of Palestine in 1947 and the establishment of the state of Israel are entirely illegal, regardless of the passage of time, because they were contrary to the will of the Palestinian people and to their natural right in their homeland and inconsistent with the principles embodied in the Charter of the United Nations; particularly the right to self-determination.”
- The Palestinian Arab people assert their absolute determination and firm resolution to continue their armed struggle and to work for an armed popular revolution for the liberation of their country and their return.
- Claims of historical or religious ties of Jews with Palestine are incompatible with the facts of history and the true conception of what constitutes statehood. Judaism, being a religion, is not an independent nationality. Nor do Jews constitute a single nation with an identity of its own; they are citizens of the states to which they belong.
- Zionism is a political movement organically associated with international imperialism and antagonistic to all action for liberation and to progressive movements worldwide. It is racist and fanatic in its nature, aggressive, expansionist, colonial in its aims, and fascist in its methods. Israel is the instrument of the Zionist movement and geographical base for world imperialism placed strategically amid the Arab homeland to combat the hopes of the Arab nation for liberation, unity, and progress (…)
The Oslo Accords called for the Palestinians in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza to rule themselves. Thus, after Oslo was signed, the Egyptian-born terrorist Yasser Arafat was allowed to travel through those territories to organize a government and lead them to peace.
According to the Jerusalem Post (November 18, 1994), from the beginning, Arafat assured Arab audiences that his agreements with Israel were part of the PLO’s phased destruction of Israel plan adopted in 1974.
Per that plan, the PLO will destroy Israel step by step, taking control of the disputed territories and then conquering the rest of Israel. On the very day he signed the Oslo Accords, Arafat went on Jordanian television (which, at the time, was the only TV seen in Judea and Samaria). He explained the Accords as a phase in implementing the 1974 plan.
Oslo didn’t stop terrorism. In the two years between Oslo and the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin, ten Palestinian terrorist attacks killed 75 Israelis and wounded another 242.
In 2010, Rabin’s daughter Dalia was interviewed by the Seven Days magazine supplement of the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot and revealed:
“Many people who were close to father told me that on the eve of the murder, he considered stopping the Oslo process because of the terror that was running rampant in the streets and that Arafat wasn’t delivering the goods.”
“Father, after all, wasn’t a blind man running forward without thought. I don’t rule out the possibility that he considered also doing a reverse on our side. After all, he was someone for whom the state’s security was sacrosanct.
Twice since that famous handshake in 1993, Israel offered the Palestinians an overall peace. Offers, giving them almost everything they wanted. Each time, the Palestinians refused.
In 2000, Arafat walked away and began the second intifada. President Clinton blamed Arafat after the failure of the talks, stating, “I regret that in 2000 Arafat missed the opportunity to bring that nation into being and pray for the day when the dreams of the Palestinian people for a state and a better life will be realized in a just and lasting peace.”
Sorry, Mr. Supposedly Reformed Terrorist, but when did the Oslo Accords start? When did the PLO change its Charter to renounce violence and recognize Israel’s right to exist? When Did the Palestinian leadership stop inciting its people to kill Israelis? When did they stop claiming the Jews had no connection to the land? When did they stop walking away from peace proposals favorable to their positions?
The Oslo Accords never really existed except on paper. It was a lesson to Israel to build guarantees and Israeli observation into each step of any peace plan.
As written, the Oslo Accords were a farce that made the words of Ze’ev Jabotinsky ring more accurate than ever:
“It is incredible what political simpletons Jews are. They shut their eyes to one of the most elementary rules of life that you must not ‘meet halfway’ those who do not want to meet you.’
Israel is the eternal homeland of the Jewish people. That’s why I joined the Zionist Herut Movement. Herut is an international movement for Zionist pride and education dedicated to the ideals of pre-World War Two Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Jeff Dunetz (The Lid) is an active member and Director of Special Projects of the Herut North America organization. More about Herut can be found at www.HerutNA.org–Please click on this link and join me in this great organization.
I look forward to welcoming you.
