Arafat and the Peace Process

	ARAFAT PEACE PROCESS

What did Yasser Arafat do to promote the peace process started in 1991?

Yasser Arafat

The "Peace Process" that began in 1991 gave hope to Israel and the world that, at last, the Palestinian Arabs, led by Yasser Arafat, were ready to give up the path of terrorism and war and reach a true state of peace. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the clear victory over Iraq in the Gulf War, put the United States into a position to influence the Israelis, the Palestinians, and their Arab-state backers toward a just and lasting solution. From the 1991 Madrid Conference to Camp David in 2000, there seemed to be progress. That assessment was disastrously wrong.

What actually transpired during the years of the peace process was a steady build-up of capability by Yasser Arafat's forces on the way to their goal of destroying Israel. Arafat was on the brink of extinction in 1991, exiled, along with his PLO organization, to Tunisia for their prior terrorist acts. But the desire of the United States to have someone to negotiate with for a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, and the desire of the Israeli peace advocates to avoid another intifada and "give peace a chance", led to a resurrection for Arafat. He skillfully played his hand and, through the peace process, guided the PLO transformation from the exiled remnant of a rabble into a rearmed fighting force, legally installed on the very border of Israel, with quasi-state powers over territory given up by Israel. For this breathtaking achievement, Arafat received major funding and institutional support from the United States, from Arab and other international contributors, and from Israel itself. And all he had to do in exchange was promise to recognize Israel and end support for terrorism against Israel. The complex details were left to later.

And so promise he did. In the long series of agreements signed during the 1990s, the so-called Oslo Accords and refinements during the peace process, Israel steadily gave up territory and security while the PLO (which became the Palestinian Authority (PA) under the agreements) made promises. But the Arafat/PA promises were largely not kept. During the years of the Oslo peace agreements the situation became known in Israel as the "Oslo War":

More Israelis were slaughtered through terrorism since the Oslo accords were signed in 1993 than in any comparable period since the founding of Israel. The worst wave of terrorism ever to hit Israel began even as the Declaration of Principles was being signed on the White House lawn. The terrorism worsened with the start of the al-Aqsa intifada in 2000 and reached even higher levels in 2002 with a series of suicide bombings.
The PA has never formally nullified the PLO Covenant calling for the destruction of Israel. Arafat has claimed the changes were made and letters were sent to Clinton and British Prime Minister Blair stating so, but the Covenant can only be changed by the Palestine National Council. The letters and claims are a sham.
Under the Oslo agreements, the PA was permitted to develop a police force to suppress terrorism and maintain order in their territory. The PA has far exceeded the numbers permitted and has armed them with weapons that are illegal under the agreements, creating an army, not a police force. The PA has the largest per capita ratio of policemen to civilians in the world! This huge force is certainly not stopping terrorism; Israel has evidence they are actually participants.
Under signed agreements, the PA is commited to rounding up weapons and putting terrorists in jail. Actually they are distributing weapons and letting convicted terrorists out of jail in a revolving door fashion. On January 4, 2002 the IDF captured a the Karin A, a PA chartered ship with 50 tons of advanced weapons on their way to the Palestinian Authority, weapons illegal under agreements with the PA. The cargo included long-range Katyusha rockets, LAW anti-tank missiles, Sagger anti-tank missiles, long range mortar bombs, mines, sniper rifles, ammunition and more than two tons of high explosives.
The PA is commited by signed agreements to stop incitement to violence, to stop glorifying "martyrs" who die attacking and killing Israelis, and to stop inculcating hate through every Palestinian textbook, patriotic song, and television program. None of these changes has actually taken place. Even Arafat himself is frequently recorded preaching hate and inciting violence, on PA media in Arabic. The Institute for Peace Education, based in Tel Aviv, scrutinised every broadcast of the Palestinian Authority's radio and television network for a 12 month period plus every statement released in Arabic from the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Information. It has scrutinised Palestinian newspapers, which answer to Arafat. In that entire corpus, there were no words of peace. None.

At each step, when it became clear that the PA was violating the agreements, Israel would balk at carrying out their troop withdrawals or other steps. Further peace talks would be stalled by the impasse. But then the international voices insisting on a peace process were not raised against the Palestinian Authority, but called for Israel to hurry up and pull out of territory regardless of what the Palestinians do or don't do. In the Oslo process, the concept of "give and take" took on a whole new meaning: Israel gives and the PA takes.

At the Camp David meeting in 2000, Israel brought this process to its ultimate point by putting on the table, under pressure from US President Clinton, unprecedented concessions, offering Arafat almost everything he ever asked for. And Arafat's response? He refused, made no counteroffer and left the talks. Within a few weeks the PA cranked up the al-Aqsa intifada and terrorism against Israel has risen in higher and higher waves ever since. In October 2000, the PLO established an umbrella terrorist-operational organization, the "Committee of National and Islamic Political Forces" to coordinate the recruiting, arming and utilization of the Fatah wing of the PA with groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

What did Yasser Arafat do to promote the peace process started in 1991?

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