This is part II of a series on an overview of the Israel-Palestinian Peace Process from the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 to the formation of the Palestinian Unified Government in 2014. You can read Part I on Oslo to the Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin here. As always, I welcome any & all respectful comments and if you enjoy this content, please subscribe below.
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P.S.
Peres’ Seven Months
In the months following the death of Rabin, Shimon Peres, who was named acting Prime Minister following Rabin’s death, vowed to continue to push forth the peace process that had begun with the Oslo Accords. In early February, Peres called for new elections to occur in May 1996 (5 months earlier than planned) due to high poll numbers showing him with a 20-25% lead. He hoped that a decisive win for his Labor party and him as Prime Minister would give him the mandate needed for the two-state solution. However, his lead began to crumble in the face of increased terrorism & national security issues.
On February 25, 1996, Bus No. 19 was loaded with passengers and traveling down Jaffa Road in Jerusalem when a Palestinian terrorist set off a suicide vest and killed 26 people, including 17 civilians and 9 IDF soldiers, and injured 48 more people. A week later, another suicide bomber on Bus No. 18 killed 19 people, including 3 Israeli soldiers, and injured 9 more civilians. Hamas claimed responsibility for both bombings. Later in April, Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist organization located in Lebanon, launched rockets into Israel in response to an IDF missile that killed 3 Israeli civilians. In response to this rocket attack, Prime Minister Peres launched a military operation into Lebanon, including shelling and air strikes in Southern Lebanon. In Qana, 106 Lebanese civilians were killed when the IDF struck a UN compound1. As it was known in Israel, Operation Grapes of Wrath had over 1,100 air raids and 25,000 shells dropped into Lebanon by the IDF while Hezbollah launched over 630 rockets into Israel. A ceasefire was called on 27-April with the mutual agreement to not target civilians.
Bibi’s First Premiership
These factors led to a narrow victory (less than .5%) by Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu, surprisingly with Peres' Labor gaining 2 seats, in the 1996 May election. Netanyahu, having to set up a coalition government, joined forces with the more fringe right-wing parties, which worried many that the peace process would halt completely. However, even with his stated opposition to the Oslo Accords, he continued to implement the agreements, albeit much slower, than was agreed to by Peres and Rabin. This, also, can be disputed as there is a video from 2001 that shows the former Premier (at that time) bragging to Jewish settlers that he “de facto put an end to the Oslo Accords.2”
Netanyahu's defiance against negotiation extends from a political issue and a religious belief. The political issue is that for him to stay in power and form a coalition government, he needs to cater to the religious right & ultra-orthodox within Israeli society. The use of settlements as de facto annexation was a common strategy to expand Israeli borders to those which these two groups believed were rightfully Israel's land. Which leads to the second issue- religious conviction. Bibi himself seems to hold to the same belief that any land given to Palestinians is an affront to those who fought for the original establishment of Israel as a nation in the 1940s. It would also be a slap in the face of G_d who had given Israel this land as his chosen people.
Netanyahu did implement some of the Oslo Accord agreements including giving concessions of land in Hebron and his continued talks with Arafat. In 1997, he ordered a daring raid into Jordan to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Mashal. The team of five agents, snuck into Jordan disguised as Canadian tourists, and stuck Mashal in the ear with a poison in his ear while he was on the street walking. The plot was exposed soon afterwards, and Jordanian police arrested two agents and the rest fled to the Israeli Embassy in Amman where King Hussein ordered the embassy surrounded by troops. Just three years after the peace treaty negotiated & signed between the Rabin government and Jordan, King Hussein demanded the release of the antidote or he would void the treaty. Due to US & international pressure, Bibi relented, gave the antidote, and released 61 Jordanian and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
With the continuous opposition by the left, including Peres’s Labor party, throughout his term and gaining disfavor with those in his fragile coalition due his continued negotiations with the PLO & the failed assassination of Mashal and ensuing debacle of the prisoner release, Netanyahu’s bid for reelection in 1999 failed as he lost to Labor candidate Ehud Barak. Netanyahu would then step back from politics as he began to speak worldwide & develop a more global following.
Bibi’s First (in retrospect)
In his first term as Prime Minister, Netanyahu was seen as a stalwart opponent to an independent Palestinian state and the two state solution peace process, though he did verbally confirm he was still in agreement with the move. He was and continued to be a consistent critic of the Oslo Accords, and yet perhaps listening to more moderate voices in his party, continued to implement agreed upon changes to both security & autonomy in the the territories. He did not prevent expansion of Jewish settlements into Palestinian territories either which became a larger sticking point. In 2001, Netanyahu, in a private conversation with Jewish settlers and caught on tape, bragged that he “defacto…put an end to the Oslo Accords.”
We end this segment with the defeat of Netanyahu and the election of Ehud Barak’s Labor-led coalition government. We will pick up in the next segment with the beginning of the Second Intifada, the fall of Barak, and the rise of Ariel Sharon. If you enjoyed this, please don’t hesitate to share or comment below. As always, I welcome any and all subscriptions and this will always be a free blog and newsletter.
The Shelling of Qana is cited by both Osama Bin Laden and September 11th mastermind Mohamed Atta as justification for terrorist attacks against the United States due to its unconditional support of Israel and lack of condemnation of this operation. In fact, according to Lawrence Wright’s book ‘The Looming Tower,’ Atta pledged martyrdom in the immediate aftermath of the Qana attack.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/11/bibi-netanyahu-the-non-negotiator/281893/