On the eve of the festive ceremony at which the Oslo Accords - or, as the document is officially called, the "Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements" - were signed, MK Benjamin Netanyahu took the podium in the Knesset and railed at Rabin that he was worse than Neville Chamberlain.
"We will work with all the legitimate means at the disposal of the opposition in a democracy to put a stop to this foolish process, which is endangering the state's very future," he asserted.
Thirteen years before declaring his support for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, Netanyahu wrote in his book "Fighting Terrorism": "At Oslo, Israel in effect accepted the first stage of the PLO's Phased Plan: a gradual withdrawal to the pre-1967 border and the creation of the conditions for the establishment of a PLO state on its borders." Netanyahu also described Yair Hirschfeld and Ron Pundak, who created the Oslo back channel, as "disconnected academics."
This week, when we met in the office of Yossi Beilin, the behind-the-scenes string-puller in the Oslo process, Hirschfeld allowed himself a gracious smile. "Netanyahu, just like all the other politicians who promised to annul Oslo, honors the principles of the agreement,"
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Beilin, Savir and Hirschfield:
...admit that although they were able to shatter the collective dream of Greater Israel, they lost the battle for public opinion. The opponents' campaign, which employed such slogans as "Oslo criminals" and "Why did you give them guns?" - culminating in Rabin's assassination, returned Likud to power the first time. The farce of Camp David II returned the right to power a second time, while the second intifada wiped out the peace camp.
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