WHY OSLO'S HOPES TURNED TO DUST

New York Post ^ | 9/09/03 | DANIEL PIPES

[kattracks]

September 9, 2003 -- TEN years later, it is embarassing to recall the elation and soaring expectations.

President Bill Clinton lauded it as a "great occasion of history." Secretary of State Warren Christopher ruminated on how "the impossible is within our reach." Yasser Arafat called it an "historic event, inaugurating a new epoch." Foreign Minister Shimon Peres of Israel discerned in it "the outline of peace in the Middle East."

[Hugin]

Saw a new poll quoted on TV today. 90% of Isrealis support a settlement including a Palestinian state. 85% of Palestinians reject that in favor of fighting until Israel is destroyed.

American diplomats are not the only people deluding themselves.

[Caipirabob]

Ther big advantage in getting all the Palestinians in one place is that you only have to target one area.

Yeah, I gave up on this after I saw the basrtards cheering 9/11. Let them reep what they sow.

[goldstategop]

Israelis are still very much in the grip of the Oslo psychosis, including a Beilinized Likud led by Ariel Sharon. Until Israel's elites internalize the fact the Palestinians reject Israel's existence and make their primary goal to make the Palestinians pay for pursuing that objective, the Middle East conflict will continue unabated. Daniel Pipes lays down an excellent set of recommendations to reorient America's Middle East policy, but recognition of reality is the last thing to penetrate the diplomatic bastion called Foggy Bottom. What a hard and sobering look at a decade gone awry.

[Jim Noble]

Israelis therefore pushed themselves to make an array of concessions, in the futile hope that flexibility, restraint and generosity would win Palestinian goodwill

Israelis have made, and continue to make, those concessions because it makes them feel good about themselves.

The nation-state as therapy.

The Arabs are not engaged in a therapeutic exercise.

Oslo was inevitable (and there are probably a few more Oslos on the way to the evacuation of the Jewish survivors) bcause Israel has not yet shown the will, nay, the lust, to destroy her enemies which is required to survive this confrontation.

Everything Israel has done in their pitiful "engagement" with the Arabs has made their situation worse.

[Dark Wing]

A Daniel Pipes ping

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[Marie Antoinette]

WHY OSLO'S HOPES TURNED TO DUST

Ummmm, maybe because everything Bill Clinton did or said was a SHAM, smoke and mirrors play to pump up his "legacy"??