Mimicking Oslo

Khalid Amayreh

The Israelis and the Americans must be hoping that with a combination of fanfare, artificially-induced euphoria and especially financial incentives, the Abbas leadership will enthusiastically embrace the final chance for peace. Then Abbas would be asked to call for general elections at least in the West Bank where he would make sure, by whatever means necessary, that Fatah would be the winner. This scenario, a poor mimicry of the Oslo agreement, is very real and is being secretly discussed between Israel and the Ramallah leadership. However, as the original Oslo Agreement was doomed, because of its inherent flaws and vagueness, the present secret talks will also lead nowhere since Israel refuses to take a strategic decision to give up the spoils of the 1967 war and deal positively with Palestinian demands for a just settlement of the Palestinian refugee crisis pursuant UN resolution 149. Finally, it is imperative to remember that Mahmoud Abbas is not Yasser Arafat....

continua / continued