Twenty Years Ago, an Ounce of Foresight about Oslo

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Twenty Years Ago, an Ounce of Foresight about Oslo

 

Posted by David Gerstman Wednesday, September 4, 2013 at 12:08pm

 

Mideast Media Sampler – 09/04/2013 The New York Times kicks off its 20th Anniversary celebration of the Oslo Accords, by blaming Israel

 

Last week, the New York Times kicked off its twentieth anniversary celebration of the Oslo Accords with an op-ed, Oslo, 20 years later by Uri Savir. I didn’t have to read far to learn the premise of of Savir’s argument. (Actually, I didn’t have to read it any of it to know the premise. This is the New York Times. Obviously, Israel was going to be substantially responsible for the failure of Oslo.) In the third paragraph, Savir wrote:

 

On the other hand, Oslo failed to meet the Israeli and Palestinian expectation of resolving their bitter conflict, primarily due to the election in 1996 of an anti-Oslo government in Israel led by Benjamin Netanyahu, and also Yasser Arafat’s failure to combat Palestinian terror and extremism. Nevertheless, after 20 years we can and should assess the lessons of the Oslo experience for the current peace process.

 

First of all these two factors should have been reversed. Netanyahu’s skepticism towards the peace process by 1996, was well founded. He never would have been elected if Arafat hadn’t failed to “combat Palestinian terror and extremism.” (In truth it was much worse than that. Arafat organized terror.)

Twenty years ago (actually September 5, 1993) an op-ed, Peace in our Time? was published by the New York Times.

 

(Read Barry Rubin’s recent Obama, Israel and the Next Three Years

for some of the particulars.)

http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/09/twenty-years-ago-an-ounce-of-foresight-about-oslo/