In 1993, Israel and the Palestinian movement were led by two charismatic militant leaders who could certainly not be suspected of mutual friendship.
Yitzhak Rabin recently became the Prime Minister of Israel again. A combat general, a hero of several wars, he devoted his entire conscious life to opposing the Arabs.
A few years earlier, Rabin had earned the nickname "Bone Man" because, when he was Defense Minister, he ordered the "breaking of bones" of unarmed Palestinian protesters.
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was led by Yasser Arafat, a terrorist who had been hunted by Israeli intelligence for decades. He was the leader of a group of people covered in Israeli blood.
They were responsible for the attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, the hijacking of passenger airliners, and attacks on Israeli territory.
Yitzhak Rabin, when he headed the Ministry of Defense, 1988. Yasser Arafat with PLO fighters, 1970.
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Apart from their mutual hatred, these leaders had only one thing in common: in the early 1990s, their peoples found themselves in serious difficulty.
From 1987 to 1991, Israel was caught off guard by massive protests known as the First Palestinian Intifada in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The protests were largely peaceful, with the exception of incidents where demonstrators threw rocks and firebombs at Israeli security forces.
To suppress the demonstrations, the Israelis resorted to collective punishment, imposing a 24-hour curfew and cutting off electricity and water to entire communities. It became clear that this was not working.
The top leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) met the beginning of the 1990s in Tunisia, where it had been expelled from Lebanon by the Israeli army ten years earlier. Cut off by more than two thousand kilometers from its own people, its leaders gradually lost influence and were unable to participate in the intifada.
In addition, the Soviet Union, which had supported PLO with money and weapons, had just collapsed. And the already almost non-existent Arab unity was finally killed by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Palestinian demonstration in the Gaza Strip during the First Intifada, December 1987. Yasser Arafat and the PLO leadership in Tunisia, 1988.
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Both sides accepted their strategic defeats. This prompted them to seek a compromise. The Israelis wanted to break the deadlock they had been forced into by years of occupation of foreign lands with hostile populations. The Palestinians wanted to return home and gain a state not by destroying Israel, but at least in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
1993: The birth of “Oslo”
Israel could not legally negotiate with PLO because it recognized it as a terrorist organization. PLO could not negotiate with Israel because it did not recognize its existence. However, they did begin negotiations in January 1993, in the Norwegian capital Oslo.
The negotiations were secret and conducted through unofficial channels. On the Israeli side, the process was overseen by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and his deputy Yossi Beilin.
The negotiations were difficult, with many disputes. But already in August, the Israelis and Palestinians reached an important agreement. They agreed to give the public initiative to the Americans so that no one would guess that there were secret contacts between them.
The Oslo Accords were signed on September 13, 1993, on the White House lawn. Not long ago, irreconcilable enemies Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shook hands in front of the worldʼs television cameras.
A year later, terrorist Arafat, churchgoer Rabin, and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Yasser Arafat extends his hand to Yitzhak Rabin after the signing of the Oslo Accords, September 13, 1993. Arafat, Peres and Rabin at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, December 10, 1994.
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The peace process began. The Palestine Liberation Organization recognized the legitimacy of Israelʼs existence and abandoned armed struggle. Israel ceased to consider the PLO terrorists. Yesterdayʼs Mossad targets became the backbone of the Palestinian self-government body — the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
It was headed by Yasser Arafat. In addition, the Palestinians received their own legitimate security forces, trained and armed by the Israelis. Israeli military and intelligence officers now worked side by side with people they had recently spied on or prepared to kill.
In 1995, the parties signed the Oslo II agreement. The entire Gaza Strip came under the control of PNA, and the West Bank was divided into three zones (A, B, and C). “Zone A” came under the administrative and military control of PNA, “Zone B” came under the administrative control of the PNA and Palestinian-Israeli military control, and “Zone C” remained under full Israeli control.
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The Israelis and Palestinians planned to finally settle their relations within five years. But that never happened.
1994-1995: The failure of “Oslo”
The peace process exposed all the contradictions between the parties. Palestinian terrorists (such as radical Islamists Hamas) did not accept peace and did not lay down their arms. Israel did not want to withdraw settlements from the occupied territories and considered all of Jerusalem its indivisible capital.
The Palestinians wanted to make East Jerusalem the capital of their state. The problem arose of the rights of Palestinian refugees to return land or compensation.
The most important thing was that the parties had different visions of the agreement. Yitzhak Rabin saw the agreement as an opportunity to give the Palestinians self-government. The Palestinians saw it as an opportunity to gain an independent state.
As a politician, Yitzhak Rabin was forced to maneuver. He told Clinton that Israel should indeed withdraw from the occupied territories. In the Knesset, during the discussion of the “Oslo II” agreement, he declared that “we would like this to be an entity that is smaller than a state and that will independently govern the lives of the Palestinians”.
Rabin’s position against a Palestinian state was also described by his aides in private letters. The “Oslo” agreements do not mention Palestinian statehood, and Rabin himself, speaking of the need for a peace agreement, did not publicly call for the creation of a Palestinian state.
Even with such a limited approach, the “Oslo” and “Oslo II” agreements received only 61 votes out of 120 in the Israeli parliament. Yitzhak Rabin had to resort to a situational coalition with Arab deputies — an unprecedented step.
Bill Clinton and Yitzhak Rabin in Washington, October 1995.
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The agreement made Yasser Arafat a legitimate statesman for Israel and the world. He hoped that in the coming years he would be able to change the Israeli position. The “Oslo” Accords were at least a lifeline for PLO to get out of the crisis. However, Arafat wanted more than the Israelis were willing to give.
As the talks stalled, extremists opposed to the peace process on both sides launched attacks. In February 1994, the Jewish far-right terrorist Baruch Goldstein shot and killed 29 Muslims as they prayed in the Cave of the Patriarchs.
Today, a park named after Goldstein stands at his gravesite, Jewish religious nationalists come annually to pay their respects, and until recently, his portrait hung in the living room of Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Jewish terrorist Baruch Goldstein. Victim of the Goldstein terrorist attack in the hospital, February 25, 1994. An ultra-Orthodox Jew kisses Goldsteinʼs grave.
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Palestinian radical Islamists began to take revenge. Suicide bombers blew themselves up in buses, cafes, and shopping malls. At that time, despite the calls of the Israelis, Yasser Arafat was either unable or unwilling to stop them in time.
It still remains a mystery: did he want to force the Israelis to make concessions (including Palestinian statehood) or did he really not have the strength to stop the extremists.
And on November 4, 1995, at a huge demonstration in support of the peace process, a Jewish far-right extremist shot and killed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. That was the end of the peace process.
1996: The death of “Oslo”
Six months later, right-wing politician Benjamin Netanyahu won the election. At the beginning of the race, he was 20 percentage points behind Shimon Peres (Rabinʼs successor). But new Hamas attacks and a more nationalist election program brought Netanyahu the prime ministerʼs seat.
The program rejected the division of Jerusalem, called for the construction of settlements and "peace through force".
Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech after winning the election, June 2, 1996.
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Although Netanyahu was a staunch opponent of the peace process and organized demonstrations against it, he did not break the Oslo Accords when he became prime minister. They became a cover for him. While declaring his commitment to the peace process, he expanded the occupation.
One of the main projects of Netanyahuʼs first term as prime minister was the construction of a ring of settlements around East Jerusalem. They cut off the city from Palestinian territories and reduced the Palestiniansʼ chances of claiming it as the capital of a future state.
He even managed to mislead Bill Clinton, who was trying to revive the negotiations. The American president thought that the new prime minister really wanted a peaceful solution, but was being hindered by right-wing members of the government.
Years after leaving power, Clinton changed his position. Now he believes that Netanyahu is expanding the war, that he is going to "rule forever," and if he is not forced to make peace, there will be no peace. At the same time, Clinton claims that Hamas is using a human shield of civilians, forcing Israel to attack them.
Clinton, Arafat, Netanyahu, and King Hussein I of Jordan during negotiations at the White House, October 1, 1996.
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29 years later, Benjamin Netanyahu leads Israel, becoming the most powerful prime minister the country has ever known. He has not changed his mind about the peace process. The “Oslo” Accords, designed for five years, are still in effect. Peace seems more distant than ever.