To begin with, the handshake was predicated upon an exchange of letters between Rabin and Arafat with each recognizing the legitimacy and the security needs of the other. These letters were exchanged on September 9, and in Arafat's letter he pledged to renounce the use of terrorism. Since then, sixteen Israelis have been killed in terrorist attacks perpetrated by members of Arafat's own faction -- Fatah. Among these were the victims of the Afula bus massacre. In addition, more than 100 Israelis have been injured by Fatah attacks.
In the Oslo accord, and in the letters exchanged with Rabin, Arafat pledged to amend the Palestinian National Covenant, which currently calls for the destruction of Israel, the creation of a Palestinian state on all "liberated" land, labels Zionism as "null and void", and pledges to eradicate it and "western imperialism" from the Middle East. Any organization that includes in its basic document such unbridled hatred as this is not an organization that is interested in peace. Israeli leaders, including Rabin, know this, and therefore asked that the Covenant be amended to remove these passages. The entire accord was based on the assumption that Arafat would remove them. He has not, and he gives no indication of any willingness to do so. The chief counsel to the Israeli foreign ministry, who supports the peace initiatives being undertaken, believes that Arafat's failure to amend the Covenant after one year constitutes a violation of the accord.
On August 9, and again on August 12, Farouk Kaddoumi, touted by many as the PLO's "foreign minister", made public speeches on Algerian radio calling for the destruction of Israel through military means. Had Shimon Peres made similar statements referring to any Arab state, or the Palestinians, it would have been interpreted, correctly, as a declaration of war, and been roundly condemned by the world. Instead, the world ignores the PLO declaration of war. It wasn't even picked up by Western media outlets. Even if Kaddoumi's declaration was no more than empty words, the Oslo and Cairo accords have been violated. How can one state discuss the establishment of peace when the other party is only interested in continuing and escalating the war?
In addition to all of this, since August 31, 1993, 68 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians, and hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by other Palestinians. In only one case was the attack condemned by any Palestinian leader, and that was only after severe pressure was applied by U.S. President Clinton. Every single attack is a violation of the accord, and every single failure to condemn them is another violation. The Palestinian "Police" Army is supposed to arrest and imprison terrorists who attack Israelis under the Oslo and Cairo accords. Instead, free haven is given to these terrorists, some of whom are themselves members of this armed force.
Throughout all of this escalation in the violence by Palestinian against Israelis, the Rabin administration has imprisoned innocent Jews without trial, brutalized peaceful demonstrators, and treated the PLO as the party most grievously injured by the injustice of the agreements. One tenth of all Israeli citizens are now considered unworthy of Israeli protection, or the benefits of citizenship.
To be sure, the violence is not all one-sided. There was one case of a deranged individual shooting 30 Palestinian worshippers. However, evidence has now surfaced that these Palestinians were planning to massacre Jewish residents of the nearby community that day. This evidence was ignored by the government commission set up to investigate the incident.
The differences between Palestinian violence and Israeli violence are many. First, the Israeli government, quite properly, condemns every act of violence carried out by a Jew. Never once has there been a condemnation from the PLO that wasn't forced out of them. On the contrary, they publicly condone continued and increased violence against Jews. Secondly, in the case of the Hebron attack, the government appointed a public commission of inquiry to address the problems raised by the attack. Palestinian leaders simply don't care about "a few more dead Jews".
The key here is that Israeli leaders seem not to care much more than Palestinian leaders do, unless the victim is Palestinian. To Rabin and Peres, Israeli victims of terrorism are "The Price of Peace", not dead Jews.
Israel has had at least one so far unqualified success. Relations with Jordan have drastically improved since the Oslo accord. Jordan now has reason to reach an independent settlement with Israel, and will likely do so by the end of this year. Other Arab states, primarily from the Persian Gulf region and Western Africa, are tripping over each other to improve their relations with Israel. Israel now enjoys diplomatic relations with 146 states, more than at any other time in Israel's history. Most of the states that have established diplomacy with Israel in the past two years have been Muslim states.
Many people will voice the opinion that such diplomatic progress would have been impossible without the Israel-PLO accords. This is not quite true. While such progress would not have come as quickly or as easily for Israel, it would have happened sooner or later. The less developed states of the world must relate to Israel, whose economy is among the five strongest in the world, if they themselves are to progress entering the next century. This is true regardless of the character of government in Israel or the posture of Israeli peace efforts.
What is a shame, and what many western analysts find incomprehensible, is that the Israeli government refuses to believe that its efforts at achieving peace have not succeeded. Instead of changing the posture of the PLO and reducing the amount of anti-Jewish violence in Israel, Rabin's drive has strengthened the resolve of the PLO, and their belief that they can achieve their ultimate aims, which have still not been abandoned.
Rabin continues to believe that peace is at hand, and that Israel is responsible for upholding a deal that is worthless. All of the conditions upon which Israel predicated the deal, conditions to which the PLO and the Arab world agreed, have been abrogated. Anti-Jewish violence has increased, PLO and Arab incitement to violence has increased, the Arab economic boycott of Israel has been intensified, and the Arab race to arm themselves for a future war against Israel has continued unhindered.
Yitzchak Rabin and Shimon Peres, blind visionaries and heartless humanitarians, have taken the false, empty, and meaningless slogan of "Land for Peace", and applied it in its most literal terms. They walk away with no peace, and having given away the land, a greater chance for war.
Copyright 1994. Reproduction in electronic or print formats by permission only.
