Unraveling The Mirage: The Fleeting Oslo Peace Process

One Israeli journalist, Pinchas Inbari, writing for the left-wing Hebrew newspaper Al HaMishmar, did not shy away from reporting this significant detail. He was scheduled to share his findings on a popular morning radio show but was abruptly canceled by Prime Minister Rabin himself. The Israeli government, eager to maintain an aura of progress, dispatched Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Yossi Beilin to Tunis to thank Arafat for what they believed was the ratification of the Oslo accord—an accord that Arafat and the PLO never formally endorsed.

Dr. Michael Widlanski, a former New York Times reporter, would later delve deep into the duplicity of Arafat’s Palestinian Authority (PA). Reviewing a trove of documents seized in 2002 from the PA’s quasi-official seat in Jerusalem, the Orient House, Widlanski unveiled a troubling reality. Arafat, contrary to the prevailing narrative, maintained day-to-day control over the details of the Palestinian Authority’s military operations, including Fatah’s tanzeem militia and other terror organizations.

Documents showed that requests for expenditures related to terrorist operations were relayed to Arafat for approval. The evidence painted a starkly different picture of Arafat’s influence and intentions.

Unfortunately, the potential clarity these documents could offer was never fully realized. Two police officials initially sought private funds to translate and analyze the documents, but ultimately, the decision was made not to disclose them to the public. When asked why, the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee at the time, MK Tzachi HaNegbi, simply responded, “classified.”