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Appendices

Israel's security since the Oslo Accords (1/5)

In the two and a half decades since the Oslo Accords, the number of terror victims has tripled, and the number of people injured in terror attacks has risen more than eighteen-fold[13]. Before the Oslo Accords, there was no department for victims of hostile acts at the National Insurance Institute – simply because there was no need for it. The security and internal security budgets since the outbreak of the "peace" have doubled, and so, according to the partial data available, has the Shin Bet security budget. Israel's security situation and the very legitimacy of its existence have deteriorated greatly.

For the first time since the War of Independence, Tel Aviv and Haifa have become an easy and legitimate target for massive rocket fire in every round of fighting. Between the unresolved rounds of fighting, which are taking an increasingly high toll in blood, Israeli citizens are becoming accustomed to the "drizzle" of rockets and to containment by Israel. The loss of the desire to win (because we are in a "peace" process) has led to the adoption of a concept of defensive warfare, which is based solely on the value of self-defense, and ultimately upon the removal of the very concept of victory from the consciousness of the IDF. The defense-only concept is what led 20 years ago to the phenomenon of concrete blocks, which began to emerge following the Oslo Accords. Over these many years, the concrete blocks were replaced by advanced technologies – Arrow missiles and Iron Dome – and completed the revolution in Israel's concept of security.

After Oslo, Israel is no longer able to decide and prevent the development of the Iranian nuclear threat, as it did more than 30 years ago in Iraq. In practice, even if its leaders do not admit to this, Israel is preparing itself mentally and practically for a nuclear Iran and passive defense. The Oslo agreement, which was supposed to bring peace and security, brought the exact opposite. The withdrawal from southern Lebanon – a direct continuation of the Oslo Accords – has placed the entire country under an umbrella of more than 100,000 Hezbollah rockets, some of them GPS-guided, which can be aimed at any strategic target in Israel and pose a threat no less severe than the nuclear threat[14].

In this appendix, Zehut seeks to trace landmarks in this deterioration. The strategic collapse of Israeli security is not a decree of fate. It is possible to re-adopt a security strategy that will preserve the security of the state as it did prior to the Oslo Accords. But in order to "recalculate a route" we must first realize that we erred. In order to be able to see the error, we must make one logical sequence of the security consequences of that agreement. This is the goal in the document before you.

The Peres Government
4 November 1995 ‐ 29 May 1996

Peres implements Oslo

History could not have invented a more successful person than Shimon Peres in order to entrust him with the implementation of the Oslo Accords, or more convenient circumstances to begin implementing them.

This experienced and talented politician, the political father of the Oslo process, the man who manipulated Yitzhak Rabin from total opposition to the agreement to his actual leadership, and who, thanks to Oslo, became a strong, well-known, (and very wealthy) international figure, took the helm the night of the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin.

The shock caused by the murder in the Israeli public was limitless. Opponents of Oslo were "marked" as active partners in the murder. Men who wore kippot preferred to hide them when they walked the streets of Tel Aviv. Propaganda did its work, and the broad popular opposition to the agreements dissipated or was suppressed. Instead of stopping the Oslo Accords, the wicked assassination of Rabin achieved the exact opposite, and entrusted the execution of the Oslo Accords into the hands of the man most eager of all to execute them, while dropping all the barricades of public resistance. Within two months, in November-December 1995, the Peres government completed its withdrawal from all the cities of Judea and Samaria[15], without any public opposition. Immediately afterwards, Peres tried to reach an agreement with Syria and withdraw from the Golan Heights as well.

Oslo engenders suicide terrorism

The result[16] was not long in coming. The Israeli public became familiar with a new type of terror – no more explosives being smuggled in bags or loaves of bread, but suicide bombers who blew themselves up on buses and crowded places. The Oslo Accords, which marked the loss of Israeli recognition of the justness of its path and the adoption of "Palestinian" righteousness, turned the war in Israel from a purely political struggle into a holy war. The suicide murderers have become "martyrs" worthy of the Muslim paradise, and their families have become respectable families who receive nice allowances from the budget of the Palestinian Authority[17]. A wave of suicide attacks flooded the country. Only in the two weeks between 21 February and 4 March 1996, 59 Israelis were murdered, most of them in bus bombings, but Shimon Peres stuck to the driving concept.

Operation "Grapes of Wrath" and the beginning of "Rounds"

On March 13, Peres convened world leaders for a peace conference in Sharm el-Sheikh. In response, he received Katyusha barrages in the north that forced him to embark on Operation Grapes of Wrath. The operation was stopped when an IDF shell accidentally killed about 100 civilians in Qana and international criticism threatened to disrupt the celebrations of the outbreak of peace.

Thus, in the summer of 1996, Israel's wars turned into "rounds."

It turned out that the withdrawal process only reinforces the enemy's belief in the justice of its path and our weakness[18], and leads to more violence. Then the Israeli leadership is forced to use the IDF to stop the attacks, but it does so within the framework of "Oslo" – that is, it is careful not to defeat the "partner", without whom the new concept collapses and there is no one with whom to sign an agreement. The loss of a sense of national justice that comes with the recognition of the "Palestinian" people and its sovereignty in our country, delegitimize any military action, even if it is for self-defense, and therefore every civilian victim on the Arab side creates international pressure that is perceived in Israel as "heavy" to "unbearable." The government, which in any case can not determine the objective of the operation, surrenders to international pressure, the IDF withdraws – and so on, until the next round.

[13] This refers to the average annual number of fatalities and injuries, before and since Oslo. For absolute numbers see "The Oslo Report".

[14] The damage caused by a large number of "pinpoint" hits on vital targets is likely to equal and even exceed the damage caused by a nuclear bomb that damages a large area.

[15] With the exception of Hebron, which was later handed over by Netanyahu.

[16] The result of the Oslo Accords, not the replacement of Rabin with Peres. The phenomenon of suicide bombings in Israel began with the Oslo Accords, and during the Rabin government, before the assassination, the first 11 suicide attacks took place, in which 79 Israelis were murdered.

[17] A substantial part of which budget comes from Israel.

[18] The most eloquent expression of the fact that in the eyes of the Arabs Israel has been greatly weakened in the years since Oslo was in the speech of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on 26 May 2000, in which he said: "Israel is painted as having great military might and technological superiority, but Israeli society will not withstand more terrorist attacks, attacks and Katyushas. Israeli society is tired of wars and does not have the steadfastness and strength to withstand a bloody struggle and to absorb casualties."