A quick hit from THE ASSOCIATED PRESS via the New York Times a few days ago: Israeli Asks Abbas Not to Step Down:
That Israeli is Shimon Peres, Israel’s President.
November 7, 2009
TEL AVIV (AP) — President Shimon Peres of Israel urged the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, on Saturday to rescind his decision to step down.
Speaking at a public commemoration for Yitzhak Rabin, the assassinated Israeli prime minister, Mr. Peres recalled that along with Mr. Rabin, he and Mr. Abbas were among the signatories to the 1993 Oslo peace accord.
“We both signed the Oslo agreement,” Mr. Peres said. “I turn to you as a colleague, don’t let go.”
Mr. Abbas announced Thursday that he would not seek another term in an election scheduled for January. He cited deadlocked efforts to revive peace talks.
It is hard to believe this level of dishonesty concerning the Oslo accords, which in the early 90s essentially opened up the Palestinian territories for a land rush by Israeli settlers not seen before.
Just a few months ago, Stephen Zunes, Chair of Mid-Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco, writing for Huffington Post, clarified the Oslo peace process in a too-long-to-quote article, whose title says it all: How Clinton and the Democrats Made Possible Israel’s Settlements Expansion. Zune’s article tells the story of how America was complicit in creating the “settlements” impasse we have today, and how Oslo and the Clinton administration made it all happen.
Here are Zune’s last paragraphs:
Once filled with enormous hope with the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the Palestinians have since seen more and more of their land confiscated and more and more Jewish-only settlements and highways constructed, all under the cover of a U.S.-sponsored “peace process.”
It was frustration over the failure of the peace process to end Israel’s colonization drive that contributed to large numbers of Palestinians rejecting the diplomatic approach of Fatah and other moderate nationalists and embracing Hamas. Indeed, prior to this dramatic growth in settlements during the 1990s, Palestinian support for Hamas was less than 15 percent. Now it is close to a majority.
Ironically, the Democrats’ criticism during the 2008 election campaign of the Bush administration’s handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was that they were not engaged enough, in contrast to the Clinton administration, whose policies were widely praised. It is important, however, to remember that it was the former Democratic administration’s policies on Israeli settlements that have largely contributed to the dangerous impasse we see today.
Peres’ claim of peace making via Oslo in the 90s is just more dishonesty from the man who permitted the first settlement to be established after 1967.