Netanyahu, Arafat shake hands; December, 1998
Netanyahu, Arafat shake hands; December, 1998Reuters

As far back as 1996, various commentators have pointed out that no matter how many violations of Oslo occur, no matter how many times Oslo is declared dead, Oslo itself is never nullified, and the “peace process” goes on. The Palestinian Authority and its control of “areas A and B” - and their takeover of Area C - continues no matter how many violations it commits.

Apparently, diplomats call Oslo an “agreement,” but use it as a smokescreen for the inexorable transfer of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza to PA control, notwithstanding continuous PA violations that would have invalidated any real treaty years ago.

This is because Oslo is not a treaty to be enforced, but a diplomatic mask for a policy of abandonment of Biblical Israel to the Palestinian Authority. People keep saying Oslo is dead, but what they have not yet realized is that Oslo as a treaty was never alive; Oslo was a cosmetic for a policy of abandonment. And abandonment continues today.

With Oslo “dead,” American and Israeli diplomats continue to invent one new “peace process” activity after another at an ever-faster pace to mask the abandonment policy: Once it was the Mitchell Report, the Tenet Plan, and George Bush’s speech supporting Palestinian statehood. Shimon Peres energetically manufactured the appearance of a “peace process” by meeting Arafat, pretending he could deliver a signature that might protect Israel.

Now it is President Donald Trump's Deal of the Century that a Saudi official today said "leads to Palestinian statehood".

Not all masks for abandonment are diplomatic, however. In addition to diplomatic and military masks for abandonment, Israeli government officials also use semantic masks. For example, officials periodically invent new-and-improved terminologies for abandonment: land for peace, withdrawal from areas A and B, redeployment, “painful concessions”, settlement blocks, "unilateral separation", and the most recent favorite, the "Deal of the Century".

Netanyahu, like Sharon and Barak before him, is expending diplomatic and military energy to make a policy of abandonment look like a “peace process”. This is because the political majority supporting a “peace process” would disappear once it understood it was being deceived into supporting an abandonment process.

This may explain why despite the many assertions that Oslo is dead, nevertheless, Israeli and U.S. officials stage more meaningless activities to pretend that some kind of “peace process” is still alive.

1. Many Israelis do not perceive the sacrifice of Biblical Israel, the Jordan River defensive line, and the dominating strategic mountain ridge as a desirable goal, but would still concede it as a bitter sacrifice, necessary for peace. They would, however, oppose a policy of abandonment – if they recognized it.

2. Many other Israelis wish Oslo were dead. The “Oslo IS dead” rhetoric helps them cling to the belief that Netanyahu intends to keep Biblical Israel. However, tough accountability measures will be needed to prevent Netanyahu’s potential complicity in the sudden eviction of Yesha.

Thus, the significant numbers of people who still cling to the peace process provide political cover for an abandonment process that they would revolt against if they really understood what was taking place.

Because Judea and Samaria have not been providing the answer, the answer is being provided for them, which will further demoralize them once the promises from the upcoming election campaigns dissipate and Right-leaning voters realize once again they've been had. Unless they draw the line, it will be drawn for them in an indefensible way.

The world recognizes people's right to defend their homes against aggression, and once they fail to defend those homes, the world also recognizes that they have forfeited the legitimacy of their claims to them. In 1948 the Arabs were told by their own armies to run and they ran. By the world's criteria, they lost their claim to the land when they ran.

Judea and Samaria's willingness to expose bureaucratic masks for abandonment is Yesha's key to survival at this point. By exposing covert eviction preparations, such as the Oslo-mandated and Israel-agreed-upon presence of Palestinian Authority armored vehicles in the vicinity of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, Yesha can sweep away the threat of eviction with public exposure and the subsequent political outcry.

If Judea and Samaria don't draw this line, there are no more lines for Israel to draw.