The Oslo Accords, signed by former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin in Washington 16 years ago this week, are the Jewish “Nakba,” the Arabic term for “catastrophe,” according to Prof. Ron Breiman, former chairman of Professors for a Strong Israel.
Arabs used the term "Nakba" to refer to the United Nations decision in November 1947 that a Jewish State should be created and to the formal declaration of statehood six months later.
Writing in the Hebrew-language daily Haaretz, Prof. Breiman asserted, “There were the good days of hope that began in Oslo, and the bad days when those hopes were dashed and the gloomy forecasts came true.” The Oslo agreements and subsequent talks exploded with suicide bombings and hundreds of other terrorist attacks on Israelis.
The violence escalated with massive rocket and mortar attacks after the launching of the Second Intifada, also known as the Oslo War, when Gaza was in the firm control of the Fatah faction.
“The people who were seduced into believing in the Oslo dream are unable or unwilling to acknowledge the feelings of the others,” Breiman wrote. “The day that the peace-dreamers danced around the golden calf of Peace Now was the day of awakening for the others, who realized the Oslo war's danger must be blocked. They see the extreme left's identification with Arab nationalism and contempt for Jewish symbols as a threat as dangerous as those of the enemy.”
Despite Prof. Breiman's charges that the Israeli media agenda helped foster what he called “the fallacious title ‘the peace process,’” Yediot Aharonot editorial writer Eitan Haber wrote this week that even nationalists should pine for the days of Oslo.
Haber, who was a senior advisor to Rabin, argued that the Oslo Accords did not mention the term “Palestinian state”, and he did not cite the agreements as serving as a stepping stone towards a new Arab state within Israel’s current borders. However, Prof. Breiman told Israel National News Tuesday that academics who advised Rabin knew that the objective was to create a new Arab state, even if the objective was not explicitly stated.
"Rabin fell into a trap," Prof. Breiman explained, "and that eventually cost him his life."
Haber also attacked the “lie” that Israel provided the Palestinian Authority with the same “IDF rifles” that were eventually used to kill and maim hundreds of Israelis.
However, the Oslo agreements state, and the Israeli government later approved - if not “provided” - thousands of rifles for the PA, which was then under the aegis of Yasser Arafat. Breiman said, "If I am hit by a rifle bullet, it does not matter to me if it is from a blue and white [Israeli-made] weapon or from somewhere else. Israel provided the rifles, no matter where they came from.”
Haber also credited the Oslo Accords for Israel’s unprecedented economic growth and the establishment of diplomatic missions in Israel by several Arab countries. “The harsh and dirty war against the agreement was accompanied by a campaign of lies and disinformation that to this day is entrenched in the minds of many Israelis, including leftists,” he argued.
Prof. Breiman noted in his article, published earlier this week, “A normal state does not abandon its citizens' security to a group it defines as a terrorist organization. Neither does it put the ‘state-controlled’ electronic media at the disposal of terrorists so they can speak to its citizens over the heads of its government. It does not allow senior terrorists ('VIPs') to drive around its territory escorted by junior terrorist bodyguards. And it does not impose freezes or evictions on its citizens to please the enemy.”