Peace or Piece-by-Piece?
By Dr. Zvi Shkedi
March 1996
INTRODUCTION
The Nobel Memorial Academy awarded the 1994 Peace prize to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and P.L.O. Chairman Yassir Arafat for their achievement on the Peace Agreement between Israel and Palestine. The selection of the best peacemakers, however,
did not occur peacefully. Immediately after the announcement, Mr. Kaare Kristiansen, a member of the Academy resigned in protest of the selection of Mr. Arafat.
Is this Peace Agreement the beginning of the coveted Peace Process in the Middle East or is it just another step in the Piece-by-Piece Process, attempting to fool the enemy and take over the land of Israel?
No one can predict the future with certainty but only fools can totally ignore the past. So let's open the history books and take a look.
GERMANY
On 25 May 1935, Hitler pledged himself not to interfere in the internal affairs of Austria and not to unite Austria to the Reich. On 11 March 1938, the German army entered Vienna; Chancellor Shuschnigg was imprisoned for daring to defend his country's independence, and no one to-day can
say what is his real fate after so many physical and moral sufferings.
On 30 January 1939, Hitler spoke in loud praise of the non-aggression pact which he had signed five years previously with Poland. He paid a tribute to this agreement as a common act of liberation, and solemnly confirmed his intention to respect its clauses. On 1 September 1939 he gave his troops the order to invade Poland.
On 12 September 1938, Hitler declared that the Sudeten problem was an internal matter which concerned only the German minority in Bohemia and the Czechoslovak Government. On 26 September 1938 he declared that his claim on the Sudeten territory was the last territorial claim he had to make in Europe. On 14 March 1939, Prague was being occupied in contempt of the signed pledges given to other countries in Western Europe.
In August of 1939, meetings between the Nazi's and the Soviet's were underway. After a month of talks, Stalin agreed to sign a pact with Germany. Two year's later, under violation of the pact, German troops stormed into Russia with hopes of taking it over.
VIETNAM
The 1994 Peace prize award reminds many of another non-peaceful selection 23 years ago. In 1973, the same Academy chose to bestow the honor of peacemaker on Henry Kissinger of the U.S. and Le Duc Tho of North Vietnam for their achievement of the Paris Accord. Two members of the
Academy resigned as a result of this selection. And unfortunately, what has happened since has made a mockery out of the 1973 Peace prize.
As more and more revealing information from Vietnamese Communist Party members during the war years finds its way out of Vietnam, like the recent memoirs of Le Xuan Ta we now know better the real intentions of the "peacemaker" Le Duc Tho. To create their power base for the fierce competition for power in the Politburo in the early 1960's, Tho and Le Duan, refused to stop waging war in South Vietnam, and accepted nothing less than a complete occupation of the South.
Out of this necessity and ambition, the Paris Accord was setup to buy Hanoi time to stockpile more ammunition in the southern jungles, to cease U.S. bombardment of the North, and most of all to eliminate the presence of the armies of the free world. In every analysis by the Party and its Politburo members, the Paris Accord was cited as a successful political maneuver intended to fool the West.
The result of the "successful maneuver" is still unfolding to this day. Two years after the Peace Agreement was signed the South was engulfed by the communist military power and the nightmarish oppression of the whole country began. Millions of Vietnamese tried to escape to the sea. Many
succeeded, but many others played victims to high seas, pirates, and refugee camps. Hundreds of thousands lost their lives in the New Economic Zones, the reeducation camps, and the campaigns to eliminate capitalists and small-businessmen. (Vietnam Insight, Nov. 1994)
ISRAEL
To better understand the motivation behind the Oslo agreement between Israel and the P.L.O. let's take a look at what P.L.O. officials have to say about this agreement and the concept of making peace with Israel:
"It is only a cease-fire until the next stage." Abbas Zaki, a member of the P.L.O. Executive Committee and the nominee to head the Palestinian police force in the territories (The Jerusalem Post, 16 March 1994)
"The goal of our struggle is the end of Israel, and there can be no compromise." Yasser Arafat (Washington Post, 29 March 1970)
"You are the generation that will reach the sea and hoist the flag of Palestine over Tel Aviv." Yasser Arafat (ANSA, Cairo, 25 July 1974)
"Peace for us means the destruction of Israel. We are preparing for an all-out war, a war which will last for generations." Yasser Arafat (El Mundo, Caracas, Venezuela, 11 February 1980)
"The victory march will continue until the Palestinian flag flies in Jerusalem and in all of Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and from Rosh Hanikra to Eilat." Yasser Arafat, in a speech at the University of Beirut (Sawt Falastin, 7 December 1980)
"The war of attrition against the Zionist enemy will never cease." Yasser Arafat (Al Destour, 26 December 1983)
"We have to accept the deal and wait for a change in the circumstances that could lead to the elimination of Israel." Abu el-Aynayn, P.L.O. Chief of Rashidieh refugee camp in Lebanon (U.S. News and World Report, 27 September 1993)
"We will not lay down our weapons until complete liberation. Sooner or later we will throw the Zionists into the sea." Lt. Col. Munir Maqdah, Commander of P.L.O. forces in Lebanon (Reuters, 8 October 1993)
"Israel must not demand that the P.L.O. alter its covenant, just as the P.L.O. does not demand that the Jewish nation cancel the Bible." Ziad Abu Ziad, senior P.L.O. official (in a speech to the American Jewish Federation, 23 October 1993)
"Soon we will raise the flag of Palestine over the liberated Palestinian land." Yasser Arafat (Voice of
Palestine, Algiers, 17 November 1993)
"Palestine cannot contain the two of us. It is either us or the Zionists." Abu Imad, P.L.O. military commander of the Bourj al-Barajneh refugee camp in Lebanon (The Jerusalem Report, 18 November 1993)
"I say once more that Israel shall remain the principal enemy of the Palestinian people, not only now but also in the future." Freih Abu Middein, Minister of Justice in the P.L.O.'s Palestinian Authority, in a speech read in the name of P.L.O. Chairman Yasser Arafat at the Shawa Cultural Center in Gaza City (Voice of Palestine, 12 May 1995)
"We have no intention of changing or nullifying the Covenant, rather, we will adhere to it until our last
breath since it embodies the essence of our demands." Tayseer Qaba, deputy chairman of the PLO's Palestine National Council (A-Nahar, 19 September 1995, page 16)
"We of the PLO will now concentrate all our efforts on splitting Israel psychologically into two camps. Within five years, we will have six to seven million Arabs living on the West Bank and in Jerusalem. All Palestinian Arabs will be welcomed by us. ../...The PLO plans to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian State. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion. Jews won't want to live among us Arabs. ../...I have no use for Jews; they are and remain Jews. We now need all the help we can get from you in our battle for a united Palestine under total Arab-Muslim domination." Yasser Arafat, in a meeting
with Arab diplomats on 30 January 1996, in Stockholm's Grand Hotel shortly after an official state dinner in his honor sponsored by Sweden's Foreign Minister in the hotel's Der-Spiegel Salon. (Arutz Seven News Service, 14 February 1996, and the Norwegian newspaper "Dagen" in an article
under the front-page headline: "Arafat Gave Speech about Israel's Destruction")
CONCLUSION
Who remembers today what Hitler promised in Europe 60 years ago? 25,000,000 people paid with their lives the price of naive belief in his promises.
Where is South Vietnam today? Both the South Vietnamese and the Americans genuinely believed that they have attained peace in Vietnam. Unfortunately the country ceased to exist following their naive belief in a signed piece of paper.
As we examine the statements made by PLO officials since 1974, can anyone detect a change in tone or intentions following the signing of the Oslo Agreement?
Arafat himself declared that as a faithful student of the teachings of Mohammed, the founder of the Muslim religion, he intends to follow Mohammed's philosophy that a signed agreement is nothing but another tool in the struggle to delude the naive enemy.
So who will be the next one to pay the price of naive belief?
On 25 May 1935, Hitler pledged himself not to interfere in the internal affairs of Austria and not to unite Austria to the Reich. On 11 March 1938, the German army entered Vienna; Chancellor Shuschnigg was imprisoned for daring to defend his country's independence, and no one to-day can
say what is his real fate after so many physical and moral sufferings.
On 30 January 1939, Hitler spoke in loud praise of the non-aggression pact which he had signed five years previously with Poland. He paid a tribute to this agreement as a common act of liberation, and solemnly confirmed his intention to respect its clauses. On 1 September 1939 he gave his troops the order to invade Poland.
On 12 September 1938, Hitler declared that the Sudeten problem was an internal matter which concerned only the German minority in Bohemia and the Czechoslovak Government. On 26 September 1938 he declared that his claim on the Sudeten territory was the last territorial claim he had to make in Europe. On 14 March 1939, Prague was being occupied in contempt of the signed pledges given to other countries in Western Europe.
In August of 1939, meetings between the Nazi's and the Soviet's were underway. After a month of talks, Stalin agreed to sign a pact with Germany. Two year's later, under violation of the pact, German troops stormed into Russia with hopes of taking it over.
VIETNAM
The 1994 Peace prize award reminds many of another non-peaceful selection 23 years ago. In 1973, the same Academy chose to bestow the honor of peacemaker on Henry Kissinger of the U.S. and Le Duc Tho of North Vietnam for their achievement of the Paris Accord. Two members of the
Academy resigned as a result of this selection. And unfortunately, what has happened since has made a mockery out of the 1973 Peace prize.
As more and more revealing information from Vietnamese Communist Party members during the war years finds its way out of Vietnam, like the recent memoirs of Le Xuan Ta we now know better the real intentions of the "peacemaker" Le Duc Tho. To create their power base for the fierce competition for power in the Politburo in the early 1960's, Tho and Le Duan, refused to stop waging war in South Vietnam, and accepted nothing less than a complete occupation of the South.
Out of this necessity and ambition, the Paris Accord was setup to buy Hanoi time to stockpile more ammunition in the southern jungles, to cease U.S. bombardment of the North, and most of all to eliminate the presence of the armies of the free world. In every analysis by the Party and its Politburo members, the Paris Accord was cited as a successful political maneuver intended to fool the West.
The result of the "successful maneuver" is still unfolding to this day. Two years after the Peace Agreement was signed the South was engulfed by the communist military power and the nightmarish oppression of the whole country began. Millions of Vietnamese tried to escape to the sea. Many
succeeded, but many others played victims to high seas, pirates, and refugee camps. Hundreds of thousands lost their lives in the New Economic Zones, the reeducation camps, and the campaigns to eliminate capitalists and small-businessmen. (Vietnam Insight, Nov. 1994)
ISRAEL
To better understand the motivation behind the Oslo agreement between Israel and the P.L.O. let's take a look at what P.L.O. officials have to say about this agreement and the concept of making peace with Israel:
"It is only a cease-fire until the next stage." Abbas Zaki, a member of the P.L.O. Executive Committee and the nominee to head the Palestinian police force in the territories (The Jerusalem Post, 16 March 1994)
"The goal of our struggle is the end of Israel, and there can be no compromise." Yasser Arafat (Washington Post, 29 March 1970)
"You are the generation that will reach the sea and hoist the flag of Palestine over Tel Aviv." Yasser Arafat (ANSA, Cairo, 25 July 1974)
"Peace for us means the destruction of Israel. We are preparing for an all-out war, a war which will last for generations." Yasser Arafat (El Mundo, Caracas, Venezuela, 11 February 1980)
"The victory march will continue until the Palestinian flag flies in Jerusalem and in all of Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and from Rosh Hanikra to Eilat." Yasser Arafat, in a speech at the University of Beirut (Sawt Falastin, 7 December 1980)
"The war of attrition against the Zionist enemy will never cease." Yasser Arafat (Al Destour, 26 December 1983)
"We have to accept the deal and wait for a change in the circumstances that could lead to the elimination of Israel." Abu el-Aynayn, P.L.O. Chief of Rashidieh refugee camp in Lebanon (U.S. News and World Report, 27 September 1993)
"We will not lay down our weapons until complete liberation. Sooner or later we will throw the Zionists into the sea." Lt. Col. Munir Maqdah, Commander of P.L.O. forces in Lebanon (Reuters, 8 October 1993)
"Israel must not demand that the P.L.O. alter its covenant, just as the P.L.O. does not demand that the Jewish nation cancel the Bible." Ziad Abu Ziad, senior P.L.O. official (in a speech to the American Jewish Federation, 23 October 1993)
"Soon we will raise the flag of Palestine over the liberated Palestinian land." Yasser Arafat (Voice of
Palestine, Algiers, 17 November 1993)
"Palestine cannot contain the two of us. It is either us or the Zionists." Abu Imad, P.L.O. military commander of the Bourj al-Barajneh refugee camp in Lebanon (The Jerusalem Report, 18 November 1993)
"I say once more that Israel shall remain the principal enemy of the Palestinian people, not only now but also in the future." Freih Abu Middein, Minister of Justice in the P.L.O.'s Palestinian Authority, in a speech read in the name of P.L.O. Chairman Yasser Arafat at the Shawa Cultural Center in Gaza City (Voice of Palestine, 12 May 1995)
"We have no intention of changing or nullifying the Covenant, rather, we will adhere to it until our last
breath since it embodies the essence of our demands." Tayseer Qaba, deputy chairman of the PLO's Palestine National Council (A-Nahar, 19 September 1995, page 16)
"We of the PLO will now concentrate all our efforts on splitting Israel psychologically into two camps. Within five years, we will have six to seven million Arabs living on the West Bank and in Jerusalem. All Palestinian Arabs will be welcomed by us. ../...The PLO plans to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian State. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion. Jews won't want to live among us Arabs. ../...I have no use for Jews; they are and remain Jews. We now need all the help we can get from you in our battle for a united Palestine under total Arab-Muslim domination." Yasser Arafat, in a meeting
with Arab diplomats on 30 January 1996, in Stockholm's Grand Hotel shortly after an official state dinner in his honor sponsored by Sweden's Foreign Minister in the hotel's Der-Spiegel Salon. (Arutz Seven News Service, 14 February 1996, and the Norwegian newspaper "Dagen" in an article
under the front-page headline: "Arafat Gave Speech about Israel's Destruction")
CONCLUSION
Who remembers today what Hitler promised in Europe 60 years ago? 25,000,000 people paid with their lives the price of naive belief in his promises.
Where is South Vietnam today? Both the South Vietnamese and the Americans genuinely believed that they have attained peace in Vietnam. Unfortunately the country ceased to exist following their naive belief in a signed piece of paper.
As we examine the statements made by PLO officials since 1974, can anyone detect a change in tone or intentions following the signing of the Oslo Agreement?
Arafat himself declared that as a faithful student of the teachings of Mohammed, the founder of the Muslim religion, he intends to follow Mohammed's philosophy that a signed agreement is nothing but another tool in the struggle to delude the naive enemy.
So who will be the next one to pay the price of naive belief?
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