The Oslo Peace Accords dealt with the conditions and elements for a Palestinian state on the basis of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 – officially titled the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, or DOP. Arafat, who had been biding his time in Tunisia following his ouster from Lebanon, was permitted to return to the Palestinians territories – a move that, in effect, granted entry to a “Trojan Horse” determined to destabilize and destroy the Jewish state.
Most Israelis, including those on the political left, have come to acknowledge that the Oslo experiment was an abject failure, along with the concept of land for peace. And, the process made it all the more obvious that neither the Palestinians nor the Syrians were ready to make full peace with Israel then or since.
A wave of suicide attacks prior to the 1996 elections in Israel, which came in the wake of the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin in November 1995, brought opposition leader Benjamin “Bibi’ Netanyahu to power. Despite the fact that he rejected Oslo prior to the elections, Bibi made overtures to Arafat hoping he might make some headway. Bibi demanded “reciprocity” from Arafat, meaning an end to incitement and direct and indirect support for terrorism. Though these demands were never met, Netanyahu signed the Hebron and Wye agreements, resulting in further redeployments in the West Bank and security compromises.
President Bill Clinton, anxious to receive the Nobel Prize for Peace, invested an inordinate amount of personal capital in the Camp David Summit of 2000. In the end, despite major Israeli concessions proposed by Prime Minister Barak, Arafat would not sign on to “an end of conflict” clause. He walked out of the summit, and soon thereafter launched the Second Intifada.
President George W. Bush, while initially reluctant to enter the fruitless “peace process,” was persuaded to act after the 2002 Arab Summit in Beirut produced a “peace plan” endorsed by the Arab League. In July 2002, the “Quartet” (United States, European Union, United Nations, and Russia) outlined the principles of a “road map” for peace, which included an independent Palestinian state. As a first step on the “road map,” the Palestinian Authority was required to “undertake visible efforts on the ground to arrest, disrupt, and restrain individuals and groups conducting and planning violent attacks on Israelis anywhere[.]”
In August 2005, the Sharon government carried out a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. In 2006, Hamas won the Palestinian elections, took over the territory, and immediately began a massive missile attack on Israeli communities in the western Negev. Subsequent negotiations in 2008 led by Sharon’s successors, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, with Abu Mazen, Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, went nowhere — in spite of additional unilateral concessions made by Olmert.
President Obama’s new paradigm, which considers the creation of a Palestinian state a priority and the Palestinian issue “key” to regional peace, put heavy pressure on Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu and led to a freeze in building in the settlements and the removal of security barriers to accommodate face-to-face negotiations. The Two-State Solution has become an Obama imperative — not so, however, for the Palestinians.
Reflecting on the peace process, one has to conclude that the land for peace approach of the Israeli left was wrong. The “peace process” has proven to be an absolute failure, especially since the Palestinian leadership (PA and Hamas) refuse to accept the existence of Israel as a Jewish State. And, when Israel succumbs to pressure from its Western “friends” and continues to negotiate, make unilateral concessions and cross “red lines” even when the reciprocity Israel receives is terror, the message to their enemies is clear – Israel is in retreat.
The “peace process” has been and continues to be based on the flawed premise that the parties have reconcilable goals. They do not. The Arabs reject the idea of a Jewish state in their midst. The evidence for this is incontestable. Not only does the Hamas Charter state this explicitly and unconditionally, but every Palestinian leader, from Yasser Arafat to Mahmud Abbas, to Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad has consistently made this rejection their policy. Israel’s left, as well as the West, must face up to this truth.
The only possibility for peace is if there is a change in the nature of the Palestinian society. Only when democracy, civil society, the rule of law, religious freedom, and separation of mosque and state occurs will the “peace process” lead to a lasting peace. Until such time, what has happened and is happening can best be described as a disingenuous peace process.
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For all their faults, neither clinton nor rabin doomed the 'Madrid process' or any other They were just being played by arafat, who wasn't about to sign his own death warrant like Sadat did. Peace isn't a process, and if a process could create it, the Israelis would have had it decades ago. Commies and jihadis view negotiations with their enemies far different from the way we and the Israelis do.
Can anybody name a single concession ever made by the 'palis'?
Sa., 10/09/10 common era
The proposed 2-State Solution would quickly turn into a 2-State Final Solution 2. It doesn't take an Einstein to figure this out. Things will likely get worse before they get better. I understand that the current State is only about 10% of Eretz Israel, promised by G-d to Abraham and his seed forever.
It's amazing Israelis would support political parties such as Kadima which is led by the outright traitors. The traitors include Livni and 2 other morons Ehud Barak, and Olmert. Livni is so obsessed with political power , she would place Israeli Jews at the mercy of the fakestinians. When the arch Jew hating moron in the White House, wanted to remove the democratically elected Netanyahu, from power , as soon as the Chicago nitwit entered the white house, Livni became the epitome of the "useful idiot" . Livni is such a sociopath , she would gladly put Israeli Jews in desire straits if it meant she became prime minister. The Fakestinians, are not a real people, They are not indigenous to the Jewish National Homeland but are tresspassers who originated in Syria , Egypt and Lebanon. They only became a majority because the British actively encouraged their immigration into the Israel with open borders, while cutting off immigration of Jews ,knowing it meant a death sentence. Israel should not negotiate with any Fakestinians because they are tresspassers, just like illegal aliens are in the US. Their so-called government is more accurately described as an organized crime family than a real government . The PLO and Hamas resemble the Mafia because they are only interested in money and murdering their rivals (Israelis). It is nothing short of insane for Israel to "negotiate" with these criminal gangs. It makes as much sense as the US government negotiating with organized crime in the US. When the head of Fatah recently came to the US , he referred Netanyahu as "my partner" in a meeting with American Jewish leaders. However, this gangster absolutely refused to say he would ever consider agreeing to live in peace with Israel as a Jewish state. This is jihadist "cease fire" . It was first used by Mohammed. It's principle is when Muslims are not strong enough to defeat the infidels they use a cease fire. The cease fire involves lulling infidels to believe Muslims are interested in a real peace treaty. Islam encourages never dealing in good faith with infidels. So screw Obama, Netanyahu should tell him and other Jew hating Western leaders he will not negotiate Israel's suicide. Israel should then evict any disloyal Arab residents as Lieberman suggested. Netanyahu's support of a loyalty oath for all Israeli citizens is a more subtle way of implementing Lieberman's plan.
"They only became a majority because the British actively encouraged their immigration into the Israel with open borders, while cutting off immigration of Jews"
We forget how few people lived in the Holy land before the 1900; Around 100,000. Jerusalem had a total population in 1900 of 60,000 , and 36,000 of them were Jewish.
Only when a separation of mosque and state, now that there is the crux to the entire problem. Any one with a rudimentary knowledge of the mosque issue knows this to be completely a no starter. There will NEVER be a separation between the mosque and state because they are one in the same. Now the solution to this ongoing problem is a one way street for the Israeli's, the arabs only understand BRUTE strength, force and death, give it to them and those who would back the other warring factions of the arab states and then and only then will there ever be peace, period. It would be better for the arabs to understand the meaning of fear vrs. appeasement, only then will they in turn allow peace as a means to end all hostilities. We saw what happened to Begin when he sign the peace deal, Arafat was no fool.
What can you say? If Isreal wants to survive they are going to have to take this matter into their own hands and tell the world to go F themselves, otherwise its a slow death.
You've all heard our "Bridge Builder", the one we've paid to "represent" us in the Mid-East Imam Rauf say "one day, in our life time, Israel will be just one more Arab state with a Jewish minority." THIS is their goal. Nothing less. Actually, a little more. AFTER they have Israel they will begin to systematically kill off the Jewish and Christian population that remains and Islam is all that is left. Can you say Jihad?
For support to this theory look to Egypt and how the Egyptian Christians (the oldest Christian community in the world) is being brutalized, oppressed, and killed. Their land stolen, their children forcibly converted to islam, and any words of protest violently crushed.
It is horrible.
There won't be peace until there's a clear and undisputable winner!