Marjory Blumenthal

On this day—September 13, 1993 Washington got the photograph it had been waiting for. Arafat on the lawn. Israel recognized the PLO. The PLO promised to drop terrorism and seek peace. Arafat was signing a hudna: a pause to collect land, power, control, guns, money, and legitimacy. Then, he could hit harder. He admitted it in Arabic. At a Johannesburg mosque on May 10, 1994, Arafat told worshippers in Arabic that Oslo was a “tactical step.” The word he used was “Hudaybiyyah,” which was the truce Muhammad made and then broke in order to take Mecca. Then Arafat called for jihad to take Jerusalem. The same week as the handshake, Jews were already being attacked in Gaza. On October 29, Arafat was caught red-handed. Three men from his own Fatah group grabbed Chaim Mizrahi buying eggs outside Ramallah, stabbed him, stuffed him in the trunk, and burned the car. Then buses full of Israeli civilians started blowing up across the country. Palestinian terrorist groups turned getting on a bus into Russian roulette. In 2000, everything became clear. Arafat was offered what he claimed in English he wanted: a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. He walked. His widow later said he had already chosen to launch the Second Intifada and sent the family out of the country so he could start it. Oslo handed Arafat a government, a police force, international legitimacy, and billions of dollars. The terrorism never stopped. It was just given a ministry.