Oslo Accords:Can They Still Be a Model for Peace in the Middle East?
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Raven Ruma
- . September 12, 2023
- . Update: September 12, 2023 10:27 pm
30 years ago, US President Bill Clinton nodded and smiled approvingly as Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Yasser Arafat shook hands and saw the breaking dawn for a peace process, the Oslo Accords.
This is a series of failed agreements, hailed as a breakthrough, reached between 1993 and 1999. The Oslo Accords was celebrated by the United States and its allies as a sigh of relief as the Middle East was in the grip of war – the Kuwait (Gulf) War. But for Jordan, the peace treaty was a betrayal. Jordan had been trying to get Palestine and Israel on the same page. The kingdom played an important role in the Madrid peace process. Jordan had not expected for Arafat to shake hands with Rabin behind its back.
For the United States, the Oslo Accords was a big win. But victory didn’t last long. Palestinian militants, who were against anything to do with Israel, went on a bombing spree. Oslo Accords, which saw a new era for Israeli-Palestinian relations, seemed to be cursed. Critics described it as a “historic mistake”, an American illusion. The Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements (Oslo Accords) was not meant to be.
Israel-Palestinian Conflict
Many Israelis believed a political solution was best. They knew the Palestinian resistance was too big to be ignored or stamped out by the Israeli forces. Moreover, Israel was continually being isolated by neighboring countries in the Middle East. Nations and the world was divided into two packs – pro Palestine and pro-Israel.
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Rabin thought he gave Israel an upper hand (Oslo Accords) over Palestine, as the PLO had been weakened by its alliance with Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. And most of all Israel had the backing of the United States. However, Rabin had other problems to take care of too…Iran, Tehran was developing nuclear weapons. The Israeli government was torn between Palestine and Iran. It knew the emerging threat, a nuclear-empowered Iran.
And then the Israeli PM was assassinated by radical Jews in 1995. The right-wing extremists opposed the Oslo Accords. They said there was no chance of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reaching a peace agreement. Israel failed to fight off Palestinian terrorist organizations. Palestinian terrorists with the help of Iran has been keeping Israeli forces at bay, but at the cost of civilians and children.
Over the years, under various leaderships and world leaders, Israel and Palestine have failed to resolve their ongoing conflict. Efforts have been made, trial and error methods have been used, not forgetting the most recent Donald Trump’s Abraham Accords to get the other Arab states on board. Thousands of lives have been lost to this conflict.
