LEKCJA Z OSLO

[tarekk]

Subject: [palestineinmyheart] The main lesson of the Oslo accord


The main lesson of the Oslo accord

The Oslo accord has rightly been criticized by people who knew that the
Israeli side was not to be trusted. Though it was a good accord, had the
Israeli intended to implement it in the respect of its spirit. It did not
include the necessary safeguards to ensure its strict and honest
implementation, safeguards essential with a dishonest partner.

However, What is missed is that any accord, however tightly and however
loopholes proof, would have failed as much and as fast.

The problem is not the weaknesses in the accord, the problem is in the
lack of loyalty, goodwill and honesty of the expansionist Israeli
establishment. Whatever good would be in whatever accord, would be
sabotaged by an Israel ruled by the kind of establishment it had and has,
since the creation of that state.

To blame all our troubles on the Oslo accord prevents us from reaching the
main lesson of its failure.

The Oslo accord mentions a final settlement to be reached within fife years
and which will be based on the security council resolutions 242 and 338.
Since 338 is an explicit reaffirmation of 242, it would be enough to
consider
the 242 resolution.

Here are relevant parts of the resolution:

====================================================
Resolution 242 (1967)
of 22 November 1967

The security council
...........................

Emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war...

1) Affirms that the fulfillment of Charter principles requires the
establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which would
include the application of both the following principles"

(i) Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the
recent conflict
...........................................................
===============================================

The increase in the number of Jewish settlements settlements directly
conflicts with "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war".
Increasing the number of settlements was a violation of the Oslo accord.

The moment a single settlement was being built after Oslo, the PA
should have proclaimed that it cannot any longer cooperate with the Israeli
authorities, and cannot ensure the reduction and elimination of terrorist
acts directed against the Israeli military in the territories, or against
the settlers, old and new.

The PA did not do that, the Oslo accord is not to be blamed for the lack of
spine of the PA in relation to the Israeli violations of the accord.

However, these violations could be predicted. It would have been harder
for the Israeli authorities to violate an explicit mention of the
obligation not to build one single Jewish settlement more. Still,
one can predict that the Israeli authorities, which could tolerate the
massacres of Sabra and Shhatila, who could implement a policy of ethnic
cleansing in 1948, who lied about it, would not be restrained by an
accord.

The main lesson of Oslo is not that the accord was wrong, it is that it
was made with a dishonest partner bent on going on with its treacherous
policies, whatever accords it signs.

This being now clear, the lesson becomes obvious: no real accord is
possible, no 2-state or 1-state solution is possible, as long as Israel is
ruled by an expansionist Israeli leadership.

Whatever your favorite solution, it has to be preceded by the toppling
of the Israeli expansionist leadership. Therefore, any proposal
for a solution that do not consider the ways for toppling such a
leadership, has no practical value.

"the day before" is the day in which the Israeli expansionist
establishment is toppled. What would be the day before, depends
on the circumstances in which that leadership is toppled.

I assert that the only power that can topple the Israeli leadership
is the Israeli people. What will make the Israeli topple its
expansionist leadership is a visionary, imaginative and creative
Palestinian strategy, as described in "stumbling blocks" accessible in
cleibovi.shawbiz.ca/justpeace
According to that strategy the day before will see a radically new
leadership ruling Israel. The state of the Israeli people at that time,
will be an absence of fear from the consequences of evacuating the
territories conquered in 1967, an understanding of the necessity of
dismantling all the Jewish settlements in the territories.
At that time we could have a 2-states solution dictated by that
day-before.

If the two leaderships will navigate wisely their states, a collaboration
of a few years will help dissolving the residual fears concerning the
return of the Palestinian refugees. It will not come automatically.
A Palestinian policy disproving the general belief that Arabs cannot
rule democratically, would be of an immense help, and will contribute to
build such an amount of confidence between the two people, that all dreams
will become possible. Once more, I refer you to "stumbling blocks". It
shows how the Palestinians can take their fate in their own hands, and how
they can indeed build an alliance against their common enemy, which is
the Israeli expansionist leadership, alliance based on the common interests
of the two people: security, peace and prosperity.

I am trying to create two organisations out of the shadow
ot the reach of the Israeli authorities. The first
organisation will work on a more detailed startegy
and will address what should be the propwer response to
all events concerning the situation in Palestine.
AS draft constitution which would be the result of a
collective work would be one of the main tasks. This
initiative has the written support of MIFTAH.

A second organisation weill collect all the events that
make one of the two people, be seen in a better light
by the other. It will have for tasks to create the means of
diffusing that information and to contribute to
make the strategy known and accepted by the Palestinian people.

I need the help of all of you. Please contact me.

Clement

nb.The well know Egyptian economist Dr. Said Amin, is supporting
the initiative, and has allowed me to use his name publicly.
--
Clement Leibovitz
#56, 3221-119 street
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada T6J 5K7

Phone: [phone]

e-mail: [e-mail]

websites:

cleibovi.shawbiz.ca
cleibovi.shawbiz.ca/appeasement
cleibovi.shawbiz.ca/justpeace

do tarka fana terroryzmu: LEKCJA Z OSLO

[Gość: dana33]

October 16, 2003, 8:52 a.m.
Lessons Unlearned
From Oslo to Gaza to Geneva.

By Gerald M. Steinberg
RAMAT GAN, ISRAEL — The term "irony" does not do justice to the contrast between
the Palestinian terror attacks that killed three Americans in Gaza Wednesday,
and the hype surrounding the latest Mideast peace plan, known as the Geneva
document.
The landmine that killed the Americans was very similar to explosives used
against buses carrying children in Gaza. These attacks highlight the ongoing
damage from the Oslo "peace" process, which was hatched by the same cast of
characters as the Geneva document. At the same time, in the nearby Rafah section
of Gaza, under the cover provided by Oslo, Arafat and the PLO obtained weapons
and explosives for a three-year war that has so far killed almost 900 Israelis.
Arafat transported weapons by sea — as in the case of the Karine-A — by land,
and by air. A network of tunnels under Rafah, located on border between Gaza and
Egypt, were used to smuggle weapons, explosives, and terrorists from Egypt.
The imports from the tunnels included facilities and materials for making Kassam
rockets, which have been fired at nearby Israeli settlements and at towns and
cities outside Gaza. The explosives that were used to attack the U.S. convoy in
Gaza were also probably taken through the tunnels from Egypt. Shutting down this
network will make the Palestinian attacks against the Israeli population and
U.S. government personal much more difficult.
While the battles around the Rafah tunnels continue, and Israelis around the
country are on alert for more terror attacks, the next Oslo-type program is
being prepared for signing in Geneva. This time, we are told, all the bugs have
been resolved and peace is guaranteed. These self-appointed negotiators have
succeeded where all others have failed, using their considerable creative
talents to resolve the difficult questions of refugee claims, Jerusalem, and
boundaries.
If we learned anything from the Oslo calamity, however, it was the difficulty of
translating noble words into deeds. On countless occasions since 1988, Arafat
and his deputies have pledged to end terror and have consistently failed to
deliver on any of these promises. There is no reason to expect the Geneva
project to be any different.
Once again, we are told, the Palestinian State will be demilitarized under
international supervision. This is precisely the language used to justify the
creation of the Palestinian Authority in the Oslo process. In the Gaza-Jericho
pact and other interim agreements, pages of carefully negotiated text were
devoted to a detailed specification of the size of the Palestinian police force
created to prevent terror, as well as the number and type of weapons that they
were to be allowed to carry (with serial numbers recorded by the Israeli
government to trace any abuse of these weapons). Other sections detailed
inspection procedures for ground crossings and for the airport in Gaza, to
insure that no weapons or explosives were being smuggled in.
In reality, all of these paper provisions were violated from the beginning. When
Yasser Arafat made his grand return from Tunis to Gaza in 1994, his profile was
higher than usual, and not because of his greatly increased stature. He was
practically on the lap of a wanted Palestinian terrorist whose entry into Israel
was prohibited, under the terms negotiated in the agreements. In this and
thousands of other motorcades, as well as in the aircraft flying into the Gaza
airport (funded generously by the Europeans), and through the tunnels from
Egypt, the PLO, Hamas, and other factions have been able to assemble an arsenal
of illegal weapons and explosives.
Three years ago, Israel finally shut down the airport and closed the overland
arms links, leaving the Rafah tunnels as the primary active route. These have
survived largely due to the presence of the Palestinian families which have been
strategically placed in the buildings above the tunnels to serve as human
shields, making any IDF attack very difficult. Now, as the IDF has finally been
sent to destroy the tunnels, some civilians have been killed and injured, and
their houses destroyed. And, as Arafat recognized, this has produced one-sided
condemnations from the U.N., the Europeans, the NGO community, and others who
falsely claim to act in the name of human rights.
The blatantly illegal construction and use of these tunnels to obtain weapons
from Egypt, as well as the placement of civilians above to protect them, is
entirely ignored by the deeply hostile and morally blind international community
charged with ensuring Palestinian demilitarization.
The bottom line is that, ten years after presiding over the Oslo catastrophe,
the amateur Israeli peacemakers, led by Yosi Beilin (a former ally of Shimon
Peres) and his partners, have not learned anything. But the Israeli public has
learned a great deal, and as a result, the Geneva version of the Oslo agreements
is destined to quick oblivion.
In embracing Oslo ten years ago, Israelis paid a huge price. They now know
better. They know that real peace will begin with actions rather than words, in
the form of the dismantling of terrorist networks. This will not require complex
negotiations, wordy agreements, and highly publicized signing ceremonies. When
it finally happens, we will all know it.
— Gerald M. Steinberg is director of the program on conflict management and
negotiation at Bar Ilan University.