The End of the Peace Process: Oslo and After

The End of the Peace Process: Oslo and After, Edward W. Said, Pantheon Books, 2000

In this collection of essays, written for a non-American audience and published over the last few years, Said, a Palestinian who teaches at Columbia University in New York, takes a long, hard look at the Middle East "peace process". He does not like what he sees.

The Oslo Agreement, hailed as a breakthrough in the search for peace, actually solidifies an extremely uneven arrangement, in Israel's favor. The Palestinians control tiny, widely separated pieces of land in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel controls everything else, including the entrances and exits to Palestinian land. Even Chairman Yasir Arafat has to get Israel's permission whenever he wants to leave Gaza, site of the Palestinian headquarters. Israeli destruction of Palestinian houses hasn't stopped, Israeli settlement building hasn't stopped, East Jerusalem is still occupied by Israel, several hundred thousand Palestinian refugees are still spread all over the Middle East; all items that were supposed to be decided in the year 2000 under Final Status negotiations. The US Government makes no secret of being completely behind Israel; for instance, watering down or vetoing any UN resolutions that may come along.

Said saves his most virulent criticism for Yasir Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. To the author, Arafat is little more than a corrupt dictator who wants to keep all power for himself. The bureaucracy is extremely bloated, to the point where the Authority has at least a dozen different security and intelligence services, filled with thousands of Arafat's friends and cronies, who draw big salaries and do absolutely nothing. During negotiations, Israel brings plenty of experts on the minutiae of any proposed agreement. The Authority doesn't even try to bring along experts of their own, because Arafat is too willing to sign whatever Israel puts in front of him. As oppressive as Israel has been regarding jailing of Palestinains, the Authority has been even worse. Thousands of Palestinians languish in Palestinian jails, many for non-violent "crimes" like criticizing Arafat. There has been no attempt to build civic institutions, like Palestinian universities or hospitals, that any independent state must have to survive.

The Arab-Israel conflict is certainly not an easy case of Black and White (all Israelis are bad, all Palestinians are good); there are shades of gray on both sides. Said makes it clear that it is long past time for Palestinians to go outside the Middle East to create international pressure on Israel to change its ways, like the African National Congress did during the days of apartheid in South Africa. Agree or disagree, for a side of the Middle East conflict that doesn't make it into the American mass media, this is an excellent place to start. I learned a lot from this book, and really enjoyed it.