What Oslo Accords Failed to Do: Wrench in Progress for Kerry

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                

Twenty-five years ago in 1987, the First Intifada started.  It didn't stop until the Madrid Peace Conference.

Twenty years ago, on September 13, 1993 to be exact, Prime MinisterYitzchak Rabin and Simon Peres, Foreign Minister, along with Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas of the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) were at the White House in Washington DC.  They all  signed the "Declaration of Principles" which had all been discussed in Oslo, Norway. Russia and the USA were co-signers.   It stipulated mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO.  The PLO were to stop terrorism and end it's covenant calling for Israel's destruction.

Israel had ratified this accord in the Knesset one week later.  Arafat never could get the PLO to ratify it, announcing this on October 7, 1993.

On May 4, 1994 they had signed the Gaza-Jericho Agreement
On August 29, 1994 they had signed the Preparatory Transfer of Power and Responsibility
On August 27, 1995 they signed the Protocal transferring power to the PA.

"The five-year transitional period would commence with Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and Jericho area. (This they have done.)  Permanent status negotiations would begin as soon as possible between Israel and the Palestinians. The negotiations would cover remaining issues, including: Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, Israeli settlements, security arrangements, borders, relations and cooperation with other neighbors, and other issues of common interest."

Starting in  the year 2001, Israel was being attacked by rockets, mortars and missiles.  800 rockets rained down on Israel by 2005.  Attacks forced Israel's retaliation with Operation Rainbow and Operation Days of Penitence in May 2004.  In August and September 2005, Israel had pulled out of Gaza.  Since the pullout, there have been more than 12,800 rockets that have attacked southern Israel from there.  Operation Summer Rains from June 28th  to November 26th took place in 2006 when IDF soldier Gilat Shalit was captured.  "Israel's stated goals in Operation Summer Rains were to suppress the firing of Qassam rockets from Gaza into the western Negev  Attacks into Southern Israel have not stopped. 4,000 rockets had rained down on Israel since 2005.  Israel answered the attacks with Operation Autumn Clouds in 2006 and Operation Hot winter in 2008 and Operation Cast Lead in 2009.   Even though there was a cease fire from Operation Defensive Shield in November 21, 2012,  23 rockets and 7 mortars have been shot into Southern Israel in 2013 with only January free of them.  30 Israelis were killed, 1,500 were injured and all the residents have been traumatized.  

This makes the PLO (today's Fatah)  still on the books in Israeli law as a terrorist entity because of not ratifying the Oslo accord.  This is also true in American Law being the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades of Fatah are listed as a terrorist organization.  Such groups are to forfeit US foreign aid assistance.

Two times the Palestinian National Council had never canceled the PLO Covenant.  So David Bedein, head of Israel Resource News Agency and director of Near East Policy Research,  brings up the issue of the fact that there is a reason to renew talks with the PLO or Fatah.   They need to ratify the Oslo Accord and to cancel the PLO covenant calling for Israel's destruction even before they decide to recognize Israel.

Already the Palestinians have let it out that a future Palestine is to have no Jews living in their territory.  They want East Jerusalem, or even have grandiose ideas of having all of Jerusalem.  The Palestinian officials want all Palestine refugees to return and be allowed in their territory.  This would be overcoming  and would drown Israel. There were few Palestinians in Palestine in 1948 and now there are millions.   They have produced textbooks with geography maps showing all of Israel as Palestine and teach hatred for Israelis and Jews.  Fatah and Hamas have no cooperation with each other let alone with Israel, and they have no proper resource for money other than donations from other Muslim countries and groups.  The occupation of so many have been in bomb making and that's about it.

One can see that these are very sensitive matters.    Kerry and Obama are pushing the oppositional Palestinians into discussions with Israel. Why is it so imperative that Fatah sit down to discuss peace with Israel when they haven't a united force for a Palestinian state?     How can Israel even consider being held to discussion with Hamas terrorists who wish to wipe them out?  Is this an act just to get something written on one's resume?

Mahmoud Abbas was first Prime Minister of Palestine and is now the president.  He has just ousted Salam Fayyad, Prime Minister and has replaced him with Rami Hamdallah, another Fatah member who is a USA educated economist.  They have discovered that they are just about bankrupt, owing far more money than a state should that hasn't even been officially  formed yet, even though google hadn't been aware of its standing as yet.

Peace is not ready to be served on the table.  There is much that the Palestinians have to do to become neighbors of Israel.  They're not showing their willingness to live in peace when they teach their children to hate Jews and Israelis as shown by their school textbooks and their cultural programs.  Peace will have to remain in the oven where it is simmering.

Resource: http://www.israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=5582&q=1 by David Bedein
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bedein
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_I_Accord
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/06/palestine-challenges-hamdallah-government-hebron.html
http://news.yahoo.com/palestinian-president-appoints-prime-minister-173034019.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-battle-of-fatah-and-hamas-with.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2013/06/kerrys-plan-dud-with-palestinians.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Summer_Rains
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/rocketrange.html

Why Salaam Fayyad of PA, Prime Minister and Economist, Calls It Quits, Maybe?

Nadene Goldfoot
The Palestinian Prime Minister, Salaam Fayyad, a moderate according to the West, has resigned.  Most likely he wasn't being listened to by the more powerful henchmen of Hamas, who maintain their actions of terrorism and strong -arming Gaza.   Jonathan Tobin, writing in commentary, feels this is a "pivotal moment in the history of the conflict".  That's because Fayyad has been the Western hope for a technocratic Palestinian state.  We're left with a weaker Abbas now, who has also threatened to resign and Hamas.  The idea of a 2 state solution isn't looking so good for many reasons.

The Oslo Accords of September 13, 1993 never promised a Palestinian state.  Agreements have never been reached.  Everyone saw the Judea-Samaria and Gaza as one unit or one state-to-be.  However, the heads of these two places never could come to any agreements that lasted more than a few weeks.  One issue for Netanyahu and Rabin has been not to be set back to the 67 borders.  A month before Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated, he had said, " "Israel will not return to the lines of 4 June 1967″ and then stated that "the security border for defending the State of Israel will be in the Jordan Valley, in the widest sense of that concept."

Dr. Fayyad was born in Deir al-Ghusun in the northern part of Judea-Samaria.  He has a PhD in economics from the U. of Texas in Austin.  He taught economics at Yarmouk U. in Jordan before joining the International Monetary Fund in 1987 where he was a rep for the PA from 1996 to 2001.  Then he was the regional manager of the Arab Bank in Judea-Samaria and Gaza until he became Yasser Arafat's finance minister.  I wonder if he knows how much money Arafat kept for himself?

He resigned as finance minister to run as founder and leader of the new Third War party in 2006.  Again on March 17, 2007, he became finance minister with the Fatah-Hamas coalition government.  By June 14, 2007, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip and he was appointed Prime Minister of the new "Independent" government which was supported by Fatah, Israel and the West.  He won his seat along with Hanan Ashrawi.    When he was offered the position of Prime Minister, he had a few conditions that he wanted.  One was that Hamas would recognize Israel, which they wouldn't do.  One of his comments which must been seen as an antidote to Hamas terrorism was,  "its the responsibility of men of religion to...present religion as a way of tolerance,...not as a cover for bloodshed.  "  Yet it has to be religion that is the cause of the Arabs not accepting Israel, causing much bloodshed on both sides.  

Fayyad was credited for the US Congress' deposit of $200 million to the PA in 2009.  Even with all that money, Fatah hasn't been able to pay their utility bills to Israel.  They have been suffering economically.  In October 2011 the USA withdrew funding to UNESCO after the Palestinian Authority (PA) was accepted into the United Nations as a full member.  The USA's contribution to this organization is 22% of their needs. The PAof Judea-Samaria  ran up a debt of  $165 million dollars to Israel's electric corporation.  Israel collects money for the Palestinians, so finally froze their money and used it to pay off their bill.

"For 30 years, Israel permitted thousands of Palestinians to enter the country each day to work in construction, agriculture and other blue-collar jobs. Until the mid-1990s, up to 150,000 people—about a fifth of the Palestinian labor force—entered Israel each day. After Palestinians unleashed a wave of suicide bombings, the idea of separation from the Palestinians took root in Israel. Israel found itself starved for labor, and gradually replaced most of the Palestinians with migrants from Thailand, Romania and elsewhere."  What they did was to bite the hand that employed them.

Gaza has bombed southern Israel with missiles, mortars and rockets since 2001.  This is not the way to induce friendships.  In Judea-Samaria and Gaza, not many are working at anything except how to destroy Israel.  Their unemployment is above 50%.  No wonder Fayyad quit.  They are depending on handouts which they are getting from Iran, Qatar and others as well as the UN.  However, a country cannot be run this way.  Fayyad knows this and is disembarking from  a sinking ship.

Resource: http://www.blog.standforisrael.org/articles/fayyads-exit-signals-oslos-bankruptcy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salam_Fayyad
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/31/unesco-backs-palestinian-membership
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-08/16/c_131787926.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_Palestinian_territories

Why Have The Oslo Accords Failed?

Nadene Goldfoot

Rabin and Arafat's Dealings

Agreement between Israel and a future Palestine came to fruition August 20, 1993. Rabin, Arafat and Clinton negotiated.

According to the agreement, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and the Arabs had a right of self-government. The Palestinian government was to last for a five-year period. Major issues such as Jerusalem would be decided at a permanent status negotiation that was to come in 1996. They signed a mutual recognition paper. Rockets were fired into Israel intensely starting in 2000 by the terrorists.

The Knesset's left wing supported this agreement while the right wing opposed them, and after a two-day discussion they voted with 61 for the decision, 50 against and 8 abstained.

Palestinians were also divided. Fatah was the group in the negotiations and they accepted while Hamas was against it. They refused to recognize Israel's right to exist in what they called Palestine, which was including the land Israel was on. The fact is that there never was a country of Palestine at all, just an area that Rome had renamed to erase Jewish presence.

On Sept 12, 2005 Israel withdrew completely from the Gaza Strip. Abbas was given authority. In twelve days Hamas fired rockets at Israel. By 2007 896 rockets and 740 mortar shells were fired from Gaza onto Israel. Many Israelis were continuously killed and injured between 1993 and 2000 by terrorists.

One can see that Hamas took over Gaza, winning their elections in 2006, and chased Fatah out into the West Bank. No group speaks for all of "Palestine". For eight years Hamas shelled Israel with rockets leading to Israel's Operation Cast Lead operation. Abbas has been very weak in his leadership. When violence increased against Israelis, the Palestinian Authority did not stop these attacks and instead endorsed them. Operation Cast Lead started on Dec 27, 2008. 1,571 rockets and 1,531 mortar shells had been fired into Israel by Hamas.

Earlier they had turned their guns on Israelis in clashes which left 61 Palestinians and 15 Israeli soldiers dead. Arafat stated among Palestinians that he compared the accord to the Hudaibiya agreement that Muhammad signed with the sons of the tribe of Quraish as a way of justifying signing them. This meant that they were signed not in good faith but as an appeasement.

Israel, on the other hand, refrained from building new towns or villages although the agreement did not stipulate such a ban. It did expand towns already there as the Arabs had not accepted the accords. More people were allowed to move into the towns in Judea and Samaria so that the population grew by about 10,000 each year. Note that all this time the accords were not in effect as the Palestinians did not accept them. Israel was not going to sit around and wait and do nothing. Israel learned quickly not to trust the Palestinians as they were divided and not being compliant. Attacks on Israel had intensified right after the signing and continued.

What the Palestinians have not figured out is that their fears were realized due to their own hatred. Israel did not dismantle their towns in Judea and Samaria for their Palestine to be created and it did expand with more people and more building simply because the Arabs could not come into agreement to recognize Israel and not attack them.

Who are you going to blame? Israel was being compliant even though almost half of their country feared the move. Israel wanted peace. After all, they've been fighting hatred and attacks since their inception. They're living in a very violent and dangerous neighborhood.

As of February 10, 2009, just last year, rocket fire continued from Gaza. The Islamic Jihad admitted that a Palestinian was killed while approaching Gaza's border fence with Israel as he was on his way to attack Israelis. On the 1st of February twelve rockets and mortars were fired into Israel. Hamas said they didn't fire them but they didn't stop them, either. And so it continues.

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

http://www.johnstonarchive.net/terroristm/terrisrael-4.html