End Oslo Accords
The title of your editorial, “25 years after Oslo, stabbed in the back” (Sept. 20), along with your conclusion that “we mourn the death of hopefulness” after 25 failed years, simply illustrates how naive and foolish people were who believed that Oslo could succeed. It was born out of the brainstorm of a few unelected, unofficial individuals who — like John Kerry today who is negotiating illegally with Iran — chose to bring “peace” between the terrorist Yasser Arafat and Israel. Yes, Shimon Peres pushed it along, and Yitzhak Rabin seemed to reluctantly go along with it, but it was probably his disillusionment with the accord that led to his assassination.
Those who were willing to say that the “emperor has no clothes” knew that the very same day that Arafat signed the September 1993 accord on the White House lawn, he spoke to his people in Arabic that night and told them that there was no need to keep any treaty with “infidels” and he had no intention of adhering to it. The terrorism that broke out, the blown-up pizzerias in Jerusalem, the bus bombings in Tel Aviv, the rampant homicide bombers, and the knifings, such as the horrific one that tragically took the life of Ari Fuld, a Lion of Zion, all claimed hundreds of innocent Israeli lives.
Despite it all, one American president after another maintained loyalty to the “two-state solution.” The realists called it the dissolution of Israel. But the “peace-makers” plodded on. We are fortunate to have President Donald Trump tackling the problem. He, and his emissaries, Jason Greenblatt and Jared Kushner, are able to look with clarity at the issues and see the PA/PLO/Hamas/Hezbollah for what they are — unrepentant terrorists who are willing to sacrifice the welfare of their own people in order to destroy Israel. I believe we are in an era of hopefulness. Once all the pretenses and posturings are put away, and reality is allowed to sink in, perhaps there will be the possibility of some sensible detente. I am hopeful. But the very first step is to trash the Oslo Accords, which have led Israel and the Arabs to this precarious position.
Helen Freedman
Co-Executive director
Americans for a Safe Israel/AFSI
New York, New York
comments