Whatever criticism one levels against Oslo Accords, they're still the only game on the global agenda.
By DAVID FORMANdavid forman 88(photo credit: )
If peace is ever achieved between Israelis and Palestinians, to be perfectly candid, it will be because of me.
Let me explain this immodest assertion. Six weeks before the Oslo Accords were initialed in the capital of Norway, whereby Israelis and Palestinians agreed to mutual recognition, I accompanied prime minister Yitzhak Rabin on his way to address a convention in Jerusalem of North American Jewish youth.
As we approached the podium, I remarked to him that I hoped the vote of no-confidence in his government, to be presented in the Knesset the next day would not pass. There were a number of no-confidence resolutions scheduled to be introduced, and it was impossible to know which way the vote would go. Dejectedly, Rabin said his sense was that one of them would indeed pass. To which I exclaimed: "No way!" He thought I said "Norway," and the rest is history. Therefore, I proudly take full responsibility for the Oslo Accords.
RABIN WAS not the first prime minister who understood the need for a two-state solution as outlined in the accords. Menachem Begin internalized this reality when he signed a peace agreement with Egypt's Anwar Sadat, which included a call for Palestinian autonomy, an antecedent to Oslo. The Likud government's evacuation of Yamit was an obvious sign that a similar dismantlement of settlements must follow if Israelis were ever to live peacefully side-by-side with Palestinians.
Binyamin Netanyahu, for all his excessive and chauvinistic bravado, also understood the necessity of recognizing an independent Palestinian state. Like Rabin on the White House lawn on September 13, 1993, he too shook Yasser Arafat's hand when he signed the Wye Plantation memorandum. Ehud Barak tried to follow in Rabin's footsteps when he met with Arafat at Camp David, and although he failed, it was after the outbreak of the second intifada that his prime ministerial successor, Ariel Sharon, began talking about parting with the dream of the "Greater Land of Israel."
Sharon embraced the Road Map for Middle East peace that was put forward by the Quartet (the US, Russia, EU and UN). Despite clarifications that he raised, he began to initiate one of the Oslo principles that was written into the road map by disengaging from Gaza. In all likelihood, had Sharon not suffered an incapacitating stroke, he may have finished the work agreed upon 15 years earlier in Norway by withdrawing from most of the West Bank.
Three years after my initial encounter with Rabin, I found myself again in his presence. I was invited to be part of the relatively small Israeli delegation when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. I was surprised at the invitation, because when Rabin was defense minister in the unity government headed by Yitzhak Shamir, Rabbis for Human Rights, of which I was then the chairman, was extremely vocal in its criticism of his response to the first intifada. At the Shabbat dinner before the ceremony, I asked Rabin's administrative secretary how it was possible that I was asked to be part of the delegation. Rabin, who was standing next to me, commented: "Because, Rabbi Forman, you were right."
IN RETROSPECT, it is difficult to judge whether those of us who were so enthralled at the time would be ultimately justified in our unbridled enthusiasm for the Oslo Accords, for they have yet to be realized. Were we right in our call to end the occupation? For certain, we were right in our demand for an end to the human rights abuses that accompanied the occupation - not only because of what the abuses did to Palestinians, but also because of what they said about our ethical values as a nation. I suspect that is what Rabin meant when he told me I was right. He concluded that Israel could not continue to fight an interminable war with a determined people without endangering our physical and moral well-being.
For those who opposed Oslo then, and who today brandish the inflammatory slogan "the criminals of Oslo," what is their plan? They have none, except continued occupation, which will eventually lead to a call by the entire international community for a one-state solution, essentially bringing an end to the Jewish state. We will be unable to resist all the forces that will be aligned against us.
To those who berate the Oslo Accords and their subsequent derivative agreements, by what logic can they blame them for the second intifada or Hamas's takeover of Gaza? What was the alternative to the evacuation of Gaza - watching our soldiers die by the day to defend a few thousand settlers living a surreal posh life amid dire Palestinian poverty? Might not the rocket attacks on Sderot have been more devastating had there been no withdrawal? Might not suicide bombings have increased despite the security barrier (of which only one-third is complete), had we shown no willingness to reach a compromise?
Yes, the Palestinians violated the Oslo Accords. Much of what they suffer is self-inflicted - a direct result of the horrific terrorist bombings perpetrated against us. But we must also assume a measure of responsibility for sabotaging the promise of peace that the Accords afforded us. Did we freeze the settlement enterprise? No - we continue to build new settlements and expand existing ones, all the while refusing to dismantle illegal ones. Have we removed one checkpoint? No - on any given day Palestinians can encounter 100 roadblocks. Did we invest in the Palestinian economy? No - we strangled it. Have we stopped the growth of a "fifth column" of West Bank settlers who wreak havoc in the territories? No - we protect them.
Have the above served Israel's security needs? No - they have exacerbated them.
Does any sane individual truly believe that the status quo can be maintained indefinitely, that the world will stand pat while we continue to rule over another people and occupy its land? Only one who considers megalomania a form of foreign policy would dare to posit such a self-destructive ideological worldview.
Whatever criticism one may level against the Oslo Accords, which gave birth to the internationally recognized Taba understandings, the Clinton plan, the Geneva Initiative and the Road Map (all of which are basically equal to each other) and whatever real or imagined weaknesses exist in them, they still are the only viable game on the global agenda that has any chance of extricating Israelis and Palestinians from the present morass.
Most important for us Jews, they still provide the possibility, however slight, of one day realizing the eternal Jewish hope of fulfilling our thrice-daily liturgical longing for and dream of peace.
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