Netanyahu plans to meet Arafat

The Herald, September 2, 1996
ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing threats of a renewed Palestinian uprising, yesterday gave his strongest indication so far he would soon hold talks with Palestinian president Yasser Arafat.

Asked about Israeli media reports he would meet Arafat this week, Netanyahu told Army Radio: “I have said that when the developments allow, we would announce the meeting, and indeed, there are all sorts of developments.” He did not elaborate.

Foreign Minister David Levy said preparations for talks between Netanyahu and the Palestinian president were under way.

“I hope so”, Levy replied, when asked on Israel Radio if the meeting would be this week. “But I am not the one who decides for the Prime Minister.”

Levy spoke before leaving for Egypt for talks with its president, Hosni Mubarak, on relations between Israel and the PLO which have dropped in the past week to their lowest point since the right-wing Netanyahu was elected last May.

“One of our options is to return to the intifada (uprising),” Arafat told high school students in the West Bank town of Nablus on Saturday.

“You remember I described you as the generals of the stones. Keep up the spirit of the resistance,” he said, referring to a seven-year Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule launched in 1987 by stone-throwing youths.

Israel and the Palestinian Authority have held secret talks in recent weeks that are on the verge of yielding a series of “understandings”, to give a major push to the stalled peace process, the Jerusalem Post reported yesterday.

LESSONS FOR TODAY

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the longest running that has hung on both nations and the international community like an albatross for more than five decades.
Netanyahu and Arafat did meet on September 4, 1996 and some commitments were made.
For a long time, the international community has been seized with trying to find lasting peace between Palestine and Israel. While the two-state solution seems viable, the intermittent violence has derailed the peace process. Land remains the contentious issue.
The Palestinian National Authority is widely recognised even by the United Nations and African Union. This gives the Palestinians impetus to fight on for its sovereignty and self-determination.
Yasser Arafat (1929-2004) was one of the longest serving leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and later the Palestinian National Authority (1969-2004). He was the soul and conscience of the Palestinian issue in the 20th Century and early part of the millennium.
Arafat died on November 11, 2004 at the age of 75. He was succeeded by Mahmoud Abbas, who has continued the struggle.
Despite the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres of Israel the resolution of the Palestinian question remains a mirage.
Netanyahu was also Israel’s longest serving premiers, who left office this year, before the resolution of the Palestinian issue.