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Five years after Oslo, peace still waits
Talks continue to define U.S.-Israeli relations
MATTHEW DORF
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
When Yitzhak Rabin grasped Yasser Arafat's extended hand five years ago, almost all agreed that no superlatives adequately characterized that moment in history.
Exuberant guests, including American Jewish and Arab American leaders, who gathered for the Sept. 13, 1993, signing of the Declaration of Principles bubbled with hope that negotiators had solved one of the seemingly intractable conflicts of the 20th century. After decades of bloodshed, the Palestinians and Israelis had committed themselves to negotiate a peaceful solution to their conflict. And they had achieved their initial agreements through direct talks without the assistance of the United States.
Five years later, the nature of the American role in the peace process has shifted dramatically - U.S. officials are actively involved in the talks and an American plan for advancing the process is on the table. At the same time, the warming in U.S.-Israel relations that followed the 1993 agreement has chilled considerably since the peace process deadlocked some 18 months ago.
"These accords were not intended to affect the Israel-U.S. relationship," said Joel Singer, the primary author of the Declaration of Principles. Singer, an Israeli attorney who lives in Washington, called the initial boost in relations "a fringe benefit." But as the hope generated by a series of Israeli-Palestinian agreements, the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty and the launching of Israeli-Syrian peace talks eventually gave way to terrorism, assassination and stalemate, Israel's relations with the Palestinian Authority regressed - and the rocky road in the Middle East did not spare relations between Washington and Jerusalem (see related analysis on page 12).
Many analysts argue that there are two chapters in the Oslo process: one in which Washington was a friendly observer; and the second, which began after Benjamin Netanyahu became prime minister in 1996 and the United States became directly involved.
The Oslo accords caught the Clinton administration off-guard. American officials did not learn of the agreement until after a small group of Palestinians and Israelis concluded secret talks in the Norwegian capital.
Two weeks later, the accords were signed and Rabin and Clinton began a closeness that an Israeli premier and an American president had never before shared.
After Rabin was struck down by an assassin's bullet in November 1995 and Netanyahu was elected in May 1996, one Jewish official speculated that the U.S. and Israel, which had just enjoyed four years of good relations, would suffer through four years of tension.
Indeed, Netanyahu's administration has been marked by periods of open strife with the White House over the peace process. In fact, Clinton is known to have told friends that he blames Netanyahu for nearly destroying the peace process.
In spite of the ups and downs, which saw Clinton close the White House doors to Netanyahu, there is no impact on the overall relationship between the two allies, most pro-Israel activists say.
"The peace process has always been an essential ingredient of the US-Israel relationship since the time of Camp David," said Howard Kohr, executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is marking the anniversary by hosting a Capitol Hill briefing on the accords. "The bedrock of the relationship has withstood the ups and downs of the peace process," Kohr said. "The tone of the relationship is affected."
The relationship between the two allies has deteriorated since Netanyahu invited the United States to take a greater role in the peace talks. For the first time American negotiators sat between the Palestinians and Israelis, mediating their differences. Now the parties are negotiating over an American peace plan.
With negotiators on the brink of a breakthrough agreement on the transfer of additional West Bank land to the Palestinians, pro-Oslo Israeli and American officials in the United States have begun to make arrangements for a possible summit meeting between Clinton, Netanyahu and Arafat at the end of this month. Both Arafat and Netanyahu plan to speak around Sept. 23, which is the opening of the U.N. General Assembly.
Matthew Dorf writes from Washington, D.C.
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