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Thursday, June 30, 2011
Weekly Commentary: Ramifications: World ignores that Arafat forfeited right to engage in violence

Weekly Commentary: Ramifications: World ignores that Arafat forfeited right
to engage in violence
Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 30 June 2011

"The PLO commits itself to the Middle East peace process, and to a peaceful
resolution of the conflict between the two sides and declares that all
outstanding issues relating to permanent status will be resolved through
negotiations. ... the PLO renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of
violence and will assume responsibility over all PLO elements and personnel
in order to assure their compliance prevent violations and discipline
violators."

So wrote Yasser Arafat in his September 9, 1993 letter to Yitzhak Rabin, the
Prime Minister of Israel.

And it wasn't easy to get Arafat, acting as the representative of the
Palestinian people, to sign off on those phrases.

Words that forfeited any possible legal claim to the right to continue
employing terrorism and other acts of violence in what he and his supporters
called a "liberation struggle".

Take a look at the phrase: Arafat didn't just renounce the use of
"terrorism" - a word that the Arabs claim cannot ever be applied to their
murderous activity - he also renounced the use of "other acts of violence".

Arafat didn't want to sign off on the phrases, but Yitzhak Rabin made it
clear that this was his red line.

So there was Yasser Arafat in the summer of 1993: Arafat, essentially an
aging has-been exiled to Tunis from Beirut, watching as each month Israeli
security forces continued to whittle down their dwindling "wanted list" of
terrorists.

No.

Contrary to what has become the story line in some quarters, it wasn't the
"children of the stones" that raised Arafat from the dung heap of history;
it was a group of Israeli ideologues seeking a way to facilitate an Israeli
withdrawal from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Oslo was Arafat's
lifeline. Israel could take it or leave it. So Arafat blinked first.

It wasn't a minor matter then. And it shouldn't be a minor matter today.

Let's be clear about this: when the entire Palestinian leadership – from
White House Lawn "man of peace" Mahmoud Abbas explains that the Palestinian
decision not to engage in violence is based on its current efficacy they are
trashing this fundamental Palestinian commitment.

That's not to say that Arafat's letter and the agreements that followed it
stripped the Palestinians of the ability to struggle for their interests.

It just limited them to pursuing them via non-violent means - both on the
domestic and the international front.

Arafat's September 9, 1993 letter to Yitzhak Rabin committing to "a peaceful
resolution of the conflict. . . resolved through negotiations" and assuming
"responsibility over all PLO elements and personnel in order to assure their
compliance, prevent violations and discipline violators" was supposed to be
a watershed event.

But it wasn't.

Because from day one that commitment has been ignored and forgotten.

Not only by the Palestinians, but by essentially every Oslo promoter and
supporter – both abroad and here in Israel.

And this should serve as a grave warning to anyone tempted to consider “land
for piece of paper.”

Because if the world stands silent when such a critical cornerstone of Oslo
is continually publicly renounced by the Palestinian leadership, there is
absolutely no reason to expect that the world will be any more stringent in
their demands and expectations for Palestinian compliance with treaty
agreements should a Palestinian state be created.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il

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