WHY DID YASSER ARAFAT SIGN THE OSLO ACCORD?
We have looked at Islam's intentions towards us in the western world and towards the Jews in Israel and we have seen how the two conflicts are connected. We have seen that Islam cannot make peace with the Israeli Jews as Israel is on land which religious Moslems regard as Islamic. Indeed, we have looked at evidence that it is considered the duty, ultimately, of all Moslems to take this land back from the Jews- using any means- and that peace with the State of Israel is against everything that Islam stands for.
So why has Yasser Arafat seemingly gone against the teachings of the Koran to make peace with Israel? Many Arabs have wondered about this and he was once asked why in a mosque in South Africa. This was his reply:
“In the name of Allah…believe me, there is a lot to be done. The Jihad will continue…Our main battle is Jerusalem. Jerusalem…And here we are, I can’t- and I have to speak frankly- I can’t do it alone…No, you have to come and fight and to start the Jihad to liberate Jerusalem…No, it’s not their (Jews) capital.. It is our capital. It is your capital…
"This agreement, (The Oslo Agreement) I am not considering it more than the agreement which had been signed between our prophet Muhammad and Koreish, and you remember that the Caliph Omar had refused this agreement and considered it a despicable truce ...But the same way Mohammed had accepted it, we are now accepting this peace effort."
…From my heart, and I am telling you frankly from brother to brother, we are in need of you. We are in need of you as Moslems, as warriors of Jihad. Again I have to say…onward to victory, onward to Jerusalem! They will enter the mosque as they entered it before.’” (Yasser Arafat, Johannesburg mosque, May the 10th 1994)
During the period when Mohammed was taking over the Arabian peninsular, there was a tribe allied with the Jews, called the Quraish , which occupied the area of Mecca. This tribe was too strong for him, so, in 628, he made a truce with them. This was known as the Truce of Hudaybiyyah and it promised peace if the Quraish would allow Moslems access to Mecca to worship. Two years later, when he was stronger, he suddenly attacked the Quraish and slaughtered every male among them. This is the truce to which Yasser Arafat was referring.
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“This hatred towards Jews and Christians stems from the prophet of Islam himself. We must always keep in mind that a Jewish Holocaust occurred in Saudi Arabia, which was carried by the prophet of Islam Himself.
Muslims have always explained this away as by claiming that they betrayed the prophet, nevertheless, the end results was a mass slaughter of all the men of the Quraiza (Quraish) Jewish tribe who surrendered. The killing of the men went on day and night, one by one was be-headed and both the heads and the bodies were thrown into a ditch. The women were split among the Muslims. Muhammad the prophet of Islam had Safiyya bint Huyaayy ibn Akhtab the daughter of the tribe's leader after he killed her husband and brother. He took his God given trophy on the same night. Why and how do they say Islam teaches peace is beyond me !!!”
An anonymous Palestinian ex-terrorist.
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"Question: Do you feel sometimes that you made a mistake in agreeing to Oslo?
Arafat: No... no. Allah's messenger Mohammad accepted the al-Khudaibiya peace treaty and Salah a-Din accepted the peace agreement with Richard the Lion-Hearted." (See below)
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, (Al-Quds, 10 May 1998)
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“Since we cannot defeat Israel in war, we do this in stages. We take any and every territory we can of Palestine and establish a sovereignty there, and we use it as a springboard to take more. When the time comes, we can get the Arab nations to join us for the final blow against Israel.”
“In order to obtain the goal of returning to Palestine, all of us sometimes have to grit our teeth (about the “peace process”) but it is forbidden that this harm the continued struggle against the Zionist enemy…The speedy retreat of Israel from the occupied areas is only the first stage in the establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem. Only a state like that can then continue the struggle to remove the enemy from all Palestinian lands. (Yasser Arafat, November 1994)
“As long as Israel goes forward (with the process) there are no problems, which is why we observe the agreements of peace and non-violence. But if and when Israel will say: “That’s it, we won’t talk about Jerusalem, we won’t return refugees, we won’t dismantle settlements and we won’t retreat from borders,” then all the acts of violence will return. Except that this time we’ll have 30,000 armed Palestinian soldiers.” (Nabil Sha’ath, Nablus, March 1996)
"If Israel rejects our demands there will be a reaction and we have a 30,000 man armed force." Yasser Arafat, 7 June 1996)
"Had the U.S. and Israel not realized, before Oslo, that all that was left of the Palestinian National movement and the Pan-Arab movement was a wooden horse called Arafat or the PLO, they would never have opened their fortified gates and let it inside their walls."
"Despite the fact that we entered these walls in order to build, unlike the Greeks who entered in order to destroy, I now tell you all, all those to whom I spoke in a secret meeting during the days of Oslo: 'Climb into the horse and don't question what type of material the horse is made of. Climb into the horse, and we shall transform your climbing into that horse into a beginning of a building era rather than an era of the end of hope."'
"And indeed, there are those who climbed unto the horse and are [now] inside [the PA territory] whether they supported the Oslo Accords or not." Faisal Husseini, Palestinian negotiator, in what turned out to be his last interview before he died.
"Since brother Arafat is busy with many various missions, authority was delegated to leaders in the field, who are on the lowest level of the organizational hierarchy. However, the leadership of the Palestinian Authority (PA) remained the source of authority, and it alone was the factor capable of leading the operations of the Intifada throughout the homeland. I can say for certain that brother Abu-Ammar (Yassir Arafat) is the ultimate authority for all operations, and whoever thinks otherwise, does not know what is going on.
"The truth is, we are Fatah itself... Our commander is Yasser Arafat himself." Maslama Thabet, a leader of the Al-Aqsa Brigade, by Matthew Kalman of USA Today (March 14, 2000)
“The Palestinian people accepted the Oslo agreements as a first step and not as a permanent arrangement, based on the premise that the war and struggle on the ground [i.e., locally against Israeli territory] is more efficient than a struggle from a distant land... for the Palestinian people will continue the revolution until they achieve the goals of the '65 revolution...” PA Minister of Supply Abd El Aziz Shahian, Al Ayaam, May 30, 2000.
"Every time that you hear me declare a cease fire and a halt to the violence ignore these declarations. You know that I am under heavy pressure from the United States and Europe. You should ignore this and continue. You should know that we are in difficult financial situation because of the Intifada. We will not receive any more money from the United States and Israel will stop the monthly transfer of funds. Our only hope for getting money is from the Arab states. But the Arab states will not give money if there is not blood. Therefore, press, press, press ["idhas, idhas, idhas"]."
Yasser Arafat to Marwan Barghouti, General Secretary of Fatah (and Arafat's Tanzim militia) in the West Bank,, Nov. 8, 2000.
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Arafat signed Oslo Accords hoping Jews would flee
A respected Palestinian editor revealed over the weekend that Yasser Arafat told him in 1994 that he agreed to sign the Oslo Accords because he was hoping the agreements would force thousands of Jews to flee Israel.
Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based daily al-Quds al-Arabi, said Arafat made his remarks when they met in Tunis, a few days before the PLO returned to the Gaza Strip.
"I met with him in his office at around 3.00 a.m.," Atwan recalled.
"The man told me, 'Listen, Abdel Bari, I know that you are opposed to the Oslo Accords, but you must always remember what I'm going to tell you. The day will come when you will see thousands of Jews fleeing Palestine. I will not live to see this, but you will definitely see it in your lifetime. The Oslo Accords will help bring this about.'"
Before the signing of the Oslo Accords, Atwan maintained a close relationship with Arafat and the two used to meet on a regular basis. Since then, he has become an outspoken critic of the Oslo Accords and corruption in the Palestinian Authority. Over the past few years, Atwan repeatedly called on Arafat to resign, accusing him of failing the Palestinians and harboring corrupt aides.
"Our close relationship ended with the signing of the notorious Oslo Accords," he noted. "But I was keen on visiting him every now and then in European capitals at the peak of the 'peace of the braves.'"
Atwan also disclosed that Arafat decided to form the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, in response to US and Israeli attempts to sideline him after the failed Camp David summit in 2000.
"President Arafat was the one who established the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in response to the attempt to marginalize him after the failure of the Camp David summit," he added.
"At the summit, he faced immense pressure from Israel, the US and some Arab parties to compromise on Jerusalem. Ironically, some Arab leaders, including Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz, called Arafat demanding that he display flexibility on the issue of Jerusalem."
Atwan said Arafat rejected the offers Israel made at the summit "because he wasn't prepared to sign a final agreement with the Jewish state. He was well aware that such an agreement would make him go down in history as a traitor because he would have to give up the right of return for the refugees and most of the sovereignty over east Jerusalem."
Atwan said that when he met with Arafat in Tunis in 1994, the PA chairman was lonely and depressed. "Most of the people around him had deserted him, some because they did not want to be held responsible for the consequences of the Oslo Accords, and the majority for financial reasons," the editor said.
"The Gulf countries had halted their financial aid to the PLO (after the first Gulf War, when Arafat supported the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait)."
Commenting on Arafat's hope that the Oslo Accords would force thousands of Jews to flee Israel, Atwan said: "The Jews did not escape from Palestine by the thousands as President Arafat predicted. But they have started packing their bags to run away from the Gaza Strip and some settlements in the West Bank. There are also signs of emigration to Europe, the US and Canada following the suicide bombings and the sense of insecurity among Israelis."
KHALED ABU TOAMEH, Jerusalem Post, Nov. 20, 2004
THE HAMAS CHARTER
Hamas interviews
Interviews with Hamas women
Hamas in its own words
A CRY FROM THE HEART
Has there ever been a peace process?
CAN ISLAM MAKE PEACE WITH ISRAEL?
WHY DID YASSER ARAFAT SIGN THE OSLO ACCORD?
The treaty of Hudabiyyah
The treaty between Saladin and Richard I
Peace? What peace?
Sermons in Palestinian mosques
The truth about Arafat and the Palestinians
Yasser Arafat over the years
Arafat’smissingbillions
Aid money used for weapons
Obituary of Yasser Arafat
Egyptian tributes to Arafat
Abu Mazen
Holocaust denial
Hanan Ashrawi
Faisal Husseini
AhmedQurei
Marwan Barghouti could succeed Arafat
Palestinian leadership should get real
Hamas on the 1967 borders
Arafat and the Viet Cong
The Hizbullah programme
The Gaza disengagement