The Oslo Accords of 1993-1995, Israel’s true intention to arrive at genuine peace agreement with her aggressive Arab neighbors and live without any existential threats, turned on their head, now represent murdering of Jews and hideous accusations of Israel and Arab victimhood.
The question is, why did Israel sign the Oslo Accords?
Was it the price Israel paid for yearning to end its ongoing fight for existence?
The first Intifada in Israel lasted from December 1987 until the Madrid Conference in 1991; Yitzchak Rabin who served a second term as the Prime Minister of Israel during 1992 – 1995, the years the Oslo Agreements were signed, lived the Intifada experience. He promised his constituents to end hostilities, bring the intifada to an end and achieve peace.
Many say, if Rabin was not assassinated, if only he had remained alive, he would have brought the yearning peace to Israel. We do not know this and we cannot postulate. What we do know today is that peace is nowhere in sight for Israel. Not when the same aggressive foes still wish Israel’s demise. Nothing has changed in the past 100 years with the Arabs’ mentality. They do not want to see Israel alive and kicking.
The years that Rabin was Israel’s Prime Minister were stormy. Israel was engaged in fighting Hezbollah to the north, Hamas to the south and Arab-Palestinians to the west. Parallel to Rabin being busy protecting his country, Yossi Belin, on behalf of Shimon Peres and Co., were negotiating the Oslo Accords, much behind Rabin’s back.
On August 19, 1993, 9 Israeli soldiers were killed in 2 guerrilla ambushes. The Hezbollah attack in southern Lebanon was the deadliest in five years.
Israel was bleeding and Rabin panicked. Peres saw his distraught victim coming. He told Rabin about the Oslo negotiations and left him with hardly any option but to agree to it and sign it.
Rabin played a leading role in the signing of the Oslo Accords, which created the Palestinian National Authority (PA) and granted it partial control over parts of the Gaza Strip and the “West Bank.” Prior to the signing of the accords, Rabin received a letter from the PLO chairman Yasser Arafat renouncing violence and officially recognizing Israel, and on the same day, September 9th, 1993, Rabin sent Arafat a letter officially recognizing the PLO.
Rabin accepted the Oslo Agreement under trauma and shock and no one criticized him, not the Left and not the Right.
The Oslo Accords failed miserably. Many Israelis paid with their lives and their health because of this faulty, myopic agreement.
The problem with Israel is not faith. David Ben-Gurion agreed to the division of the land because of his evaluation of power assessment. In this case Ben-Gurion erred.
The problem with Israel is assessing what is the price, whatever the price is, she will need to pay for continuing controlling the disputed areas she freed from illegal occupation in 1967, or if she annexes all of this land to be part of sovereign Israel.
The debate is ongoing because instead of doing a population transfer in 1967, as any other healthy thinking nation would have done in the same situation, Israel invited terrorist Yasser Arafat and Co. into her land and the rest is a bloody and sad history, and bloody and sad future.
