Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The Secrecy of the Oslo Accords and the PLO Phased Plan

Nurit Greenger

The PLO Phased Plan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1N77BKCKE4&feature=player_embedded

History consistently reminds us that indifference in the face of an merciless enemy invariably leads to disaster. Further, more often than not, our enemies tell us exactly what they intend to do before they do it. Acting on their warning requires our personal courage, collective insight, and national will.

Prelude

on January 20, 1993 the Israeli Knesset voted to lift a ban on contacts with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), legalizing meetings with members of the group. Israeli Lawmakers voted 39 to 20 to repeal a 1986 law prohibiting Israelis from meeting the PLO members. The change was supported by legislators from the governing coalition led by the Labor Party, although the Government continues to reject negotiations with the PLO, which Israel considered to be a terrorist group. The law banning contacts with the PLO was passed in the administration of a coalition Government of Labor and the right-wing Likud. It has been repeatedly defied by peace campaigners and leftist members of Parliament who have met PLO officials abroad. Several Israelis have been tried and two were jailed, including a veteran peace advocate, Abie Nathan.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was conspicuously absent from the late-night vote, attended by less than half the 120-member Parliament. Mr. Rabin has consistently opposed PLO participation in the Middle East peace talks, and has expressed concern that the new legislation might invite moves by the United States to involve the PLO openly in the negotiations.

The PLO was banned from the talks in Madrid in October 1991. However, the Palestinian negotiators from the West Bank openly consulted with PLO leaders at its headquarters in Tunis, thus direct talks were rejected.

A month earlier, Israel expelled 415 Arab-Palestinians to Lebanon and left-wing Meretz Party cabinet ministers urged Mr. Rabin to meet a pro-PLO leaders in the West bank and to consider inclusion of the organization in later stages of the talks in Madrid.

These ministers argued that the expulsions, aimed at suspected Islamic militants opposed to the peace talks, should be balanced by overtures to the Palestinian leadership supporting the talks.

There were also growing support for talks with the PLO among Mr. Rabin's Labor Party. But Mr. Rabin has rejected direct talks with the PLO in the current discussions of interim self-rule arrangements in the occupied territories, arguing that those talks can only be held with Arab-Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. But he has tolerated open consultations between Arab-Palestinian delegates and PLO leaders.

In December 1992, in the background of the official "Madrid negotiations" in London, Israeli vice-minister of foreign affairs Yossi Beilin and Norwegian researcher Terje Rød-Larson set up a secret meeting for PLO representative Ahmed Qurei and Israeli history professor Yair Hirschfeld. Qurei and Hirschfeld made a connection and decided to meet again in what was going to be a series of 14 meetings in Oslo. During the first few meetings, a concept of an accord was discussed and agreed upon. The Foreign Affairs of Israel, Shimon Peres, was interested and sent the highest-ranking non-political representative and a military lawyer to continue the negotiations. Unlike the Madrid negotiations, the Israeli and the Arab-"Palestinian" delegations in Norway were usually accommodated in the same residence, they had breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same table, resulting in mutual respect and close friendships. The Norwegian government covered the expenses, provided security and kept the meetings away from the public eye, using the research institute Fafo as a front.

Negotiations concerning the agreements were conducted secretly, without the knowledge of the entire Jewish Nation, in Oslo, Norway, hosted by the Fafo Institute, and completed on 20 August 1993. What made the Oslo Accord negotiations different however, was the government of Israel's decision, against its law that banned negotiating with the terror organization PLO, to hold direct, face-to-face negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization, as the representative of the Arabs a/k/a Palestinian people.

On the other hand, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) realized the loss of its most important diplomatic patron, the Soviet Union, that started in 1989, and Arafat's failing relationship with Moscow. Another factor which pushed the PLO to the Accords was the fallout from the 1990-1991 Gulf War; because Arafat took a pro-Iraqi stand during the war, the Arab Gulf states cut off financial assistance to the PLO. The PLO was not invited to the 1991 Madrid Conference at which Israel discussed peace with Lebanon, Jordan and Syria and Palestinian groups that were not associated with the PLO, although the PLO, behind the scenes coordinated the Palestinian delegation at Madrid.

In August 1993, the delegations had reached an agreement which was signed in secrecy by Peres while visiting Oslo, who took the agreement to the United States to the surprise of US negotiator Dennis Ross. This was not yet the Arab-Palestinians and Israelis agreement on the wording of the Letter of Mutual Recognition, in which the PLO would acknowledge the state of Israel and pledge to reject violence, and Israel would recognize the (unelected) PLO as the official Palestinian Authority, allowing Yasser Arafat to return to the West Bank.

The Accords were subsequently officially signed at a public ceremony in Washington DC, in the White House Rose Garden, on 13 September 1993, in the presence of PLO chairman terrorist Yasser Arafat, the Prime Minister of Israel Yitzchak Rabin, and the United States President William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton. The documents themselves were signed by Mahmoud Abbas, Araft's right hand man for the PLO, the Foreign Minister of Israel, Shimon Peres for Israel, Secretary of State Warren Christopher for the United State and foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev for Russia.

The Oslo Accords, was a political attempt to resolve the ongoing Arab a/k/a Palestinians conflict with Israel. It was the first direct, face-to-face agreement between the Government of Israel and the terror organization Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The intent was to establish the framework for future negotiations and relations between the government of Israel and the Arabs, within which all outstanding "final status issues" between the two sides would be addressed and resolved.

The Oslo Accords provided for the creation of a Palestinian National Authority (PNA), now known as the Palestinian Authority - PA. The Palestinian Authority was delegated the responsibility for the administration of the territory it was allocated to control. The Accords granted the Arab-Palestinians right to self-government on the Gaza Strip and the city of Jericho and in certain areas in the West Bank, through the creation of the PA. Yasser Arafat was appointed head of the Palestinian Authority and a timetable for elections was laid out, which saw Arafat elected president in January 1996, 18 months behind schedule. Although the PLO and the PA are not formally linked, the PLO dominates the administration. The headquarters of the PLO were moved to Ramallah on the West Bank.

Additionally, it was agreed that there would be a transfer of authority from the Israel Defense Forces to the authorized Palestinians, concerning education and culture, health, social welfare, direct taxation, and tourism. The Council would establish a strong police force, while Israel would continue to carry the responsibility for defending against external threats.

On 9 September 1993, Arafat issued a press release stating that "the PLO recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security".

Both Yitzchak Rabin and Shimon Peres opposed the creation of a Palestinian state, before and after the Accord. At the same time, a significant portion of the Israeli public and some political leaders, including the current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, expressed doubt over whether a peaceful, coherent state can be founded by the PLO, and call for significant re-organization, including the elimination of all terrorism, before any talk about independence.

In Israel, a strong debate over the accords took place; the left wing supported them, while the right wing opposed them. After a two-day discussion in the Knesset, on 23 September 1993, a vote of confidence was held in which 61 Knesset members voted for the decision, 50 voted against and 8 abstained.

Palestinian reactions were also divided. Fatah, the group that represented the Palestinians in the negotiations, accepted the accords, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine objected to the accords because their own charters refuse to recognize Israel's right to exist in Palestine.

On both sides, there were fears of the other side's intentions. The Israeli government, the Israeli's trust in the accords was undermined by the fact that after the signing, the attacks against Israel intensified, which, some explained, was an attempt by certain Palestinian organizations to thwart the peace process. Others believed that the Palestinian Authority had no interest in stopping these attacks and was instead endorsing them, as they do to this day. As evidence showed, when violence flared up in September 1996, Palestinian police turned their guns on the Israelis in clashes which left 61 Palestinians and 15 Israeli soldiers dead.

Since the start of the second Intifada, known as the al-Aqsa Intifada, in 2000, the Oslo Accords are viewed with increasing disfavor by both the Arab-Palestinians and the Israeli public.

The Oslo Accords were secretly negotiated against Israeli Law prohibiting negotiating with the PLO, which Peres and Beilin blatantly violated. The Oslo Accords was conceived in violation of the Law and was therefore a criminal act, and it still is.

It is also publically known fact that in his book, Yitzchak Rabin identified Peres as an underhanded saboteur and they never really had a good relationship.

In summation, Shimon Peres does today what he has done for decades, which is to subterfuge and act underhandedly and secretive, all behind the back of the government of Israel. He conspired with his protégée Yossi Beilin right through the Oslo Accord. In fact, one can see the Oslo Accord as a process to destroy the Jewish State as was created by David Ben Gurion, Moshe Sharet, Abba Eban, Golda Meir and Menachem Begin and others.

In 2012, we can comfortably say that the Oslo Accords were a waste of time and a great loss of hope, blood and lives, mostly for the Israelis, who want peace, have adhered, as much as possible, and beyond, to the Agreement. To achieve her desired peace, Israel made irreversible, painful and regrettable concessions to people who had no intention to have peace with her, and they say it loud and clear.

Therefore, without exposing the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a whole, who all stand for inciting against Israel and her demise Israel has no chance of survival.

On September 23rd, 2011, Abbas Zaki the former representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Lebanon and a member of Fatah's central told Al Jazeera television that any negotiated “settlement” should be based on 1967 borders. Indefensible for Israel, true, but not an outrageous thing to say in public discourse, as President Obama has said the very same - http://www.theblaze.com/stories/obama-endorses-palestinian-border-demands. Further, Zaki then went on to say, “When we say that the settlement should be based upon these borders, President Abbas understands, we understand, and everybody knows that the greater goal cannot be accomplished in one go.” Code for: negotiate, get as much as you can, and then move the yardstick down the road saying that's not enough. He also said that Fatah is going to destroy Israel in stages but needs to be quiet about it.

The Oslo Accords weakened Israel. Just like Neville Chamberlain harmed Britain and all of Europe by playing pretend with Hitler, Obama also has weakened Israel and the entire world and strengthened Islamofascist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood.

The time is now for the table to turn: The PA must be considered a "terrorist", "apartheid", "imperialist", entity, not Israel. Only then we can get around to promote 'zot ha'haretz shelanu-This is Our Land, Israel's real history, and why even talking about dividing Jerusalem is immoral and against all Jewish belief. Only then we will be able to turn the anti-Israel tide.

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References: http://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/20/world/israeli-parliament-lifts-a-ban-on-plo-contacts.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_Accords

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