My Story 35

The Oslo accords were negotiated in secret. One morning, I woke up, turned on the radio, and instead of the usual "It's six a.m., here is the news, first the headlines", I heard "...here is the news, Jericho and Gaza first" followed by a giggle. The country was sideswiped. An agreement had been reached in which a Palestinian State, in all but name, would be set up, armed by Israel. Reaction was fierce. The Right saw it as a suicide pact. The Left saw it as the road to Peace. When protests ensued, especially over arming the enemy, Rabin famously said "How long will you be afraid and make others fearful? There is no chance; NO CHANCE, that these weapons will be turned against us. They are for Arafat to be used against his own extremists". Arafat issued a statement that this was ridiculous. Rabin assured us that Arafat didn't mean that. When questioned about the wisdom of giving up strategic areas, vital for defense, both Rabin and Peres said "You don't get it. In peacetime, there is no threat!" Surprisingly, the agreement was enthusiastically endorsed by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Many of his most avid followers abandoned him at this point, and he was widely seen as a traitor. One prominent Sepharadic rabbi even told me that he believed that Rav Ovadia had lost his portion in the World to Come. My "inside sources" close to Rav Ovadia revealed what actually happened. Top military brass had visited the Rav, and told him that there was only a fifty percent chance that the deal would work. However, without it, there was absolutely no chance that Israel could survive. On that basis, the Rav concluded that this was the lesser of two evils. What he failed to consider, in my opinion, is that virtually every high officer, when he retires, goes into politics...on the Left. The Rav became a great hero in Arab countries, as well as to the Palestinian leadership. However, when Oslo resulted in even more terror and bloodshed, which goes on to this day, the Rav repudiated his stance, and called them "snakes". A Fatwa (death sentence) was placed upon him by Muslim clerics. Thankfully, it was never carried out. Later, he announced that Aryeh Deri, his right-hand man, had made a deal with the Left, and had arranged the meeting with the army brass, thus deceiving the Rav. When Rabin came to the Knesset to get parliamentary support for the agreement, as was required by law, he saw that he was one vote short. He announced that any Right-Wing Knesset member who would vote for the measure, would become part of the Labor government, and become a Cabinet member. This meant both a Volvo, which was a major Israeli status symbol, and a generous pension for life. One of the members of the ultra-Right Tsomet party took the bait. He sold out his party, as well as his country. Oslo was now law. Violence became widespread in ways that had never been seen before. Buses in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv were blowing up at such a rate, that many motorists stayed far away from them...just in case. Rabin demanded a denunciation of the violence from Arafat. But Arafat would only give a generic "I deplore all violence". President Bill Clinton spent a half-hour on the phone with Arafat, until he extracted a lukewarm statement. Rabin told Clinton that he was putting implementation of the measures on hold. Clinton said he couldn't do that. Clinton spoke, Rabin obeyed. Hundreds died in the next few months; many of them personal friends of mine. After this, I ceased flying the flag on Independence Day. My neighbors asked me "Hey, where's your flag?" I answered "Where's your independence?". To give this some perspective, during this period, and the following years, besides my daughter Feigie's kindergarten teacher being murdered, my daughter Nechama's kindergarten teacher's husband, a neighbor of ours, was captured, placed in the trunk of his car, and burned alive. My eldest son, Nachman, was THREE times on buses that were firebombed. My son, Natan, was one block away when a car bomb exploded. My son Eli was shooting baskets on one side of the road, with another boy waiting for a bus on the other side. Terrorists in a car drove by, shooting out of the left window. The boy, David Baum (an American) was killed. Eli, at fourteen, was the only eyewitness. Had they shot from the other side, it would have been the reverse. One Saturday night, right after Shabbat, we turned on the television that was broadcasting a news bulletin. A boy, who sat next to my son Shmuel Yitzchak at school, was in a hospital. He had been sitting in front of his house on Shabbat afternoon when a rocket exploded. His body was riddled with shrapnel, but he was alive and conscious. A reporter asked him "how should Israel respond to this?" He said "Get 'em!" The screen went instantly blank. Make no mistake, there were severe repercussions resulting from these events. However, those repercussions were not directed towards our "partners in Peace", but at Israelis who spoke up. Whoever spoke up, was summarily put in prison. No trial. My turn was to come as well, but there are still a few events that must be told first. Shortly after Oslo went into effect, an apparently dastardly act of Jewish terrorism rocked Israel and the world. It was violence for no rhyme or reason. Or was it? Next post.