The Oslo Diaries

Ron Pundak: It's hard to find an opening to my story,

a tale of a small cog in the history of our region.

I can only write my own private memories

of these three years of hope and anguish.

Is this a tale of triumph,

or defeat?

The ending to our story

has not yet been written.

Ve zeh-- This is obviously shit.

Pundak: Perhaps, I should start

with the one decisive Wednesday, on July '92,

when Professor Hirschfeld called me up with a dangerous proposition:

joining him for a secret meeting with our sworn enemies,

the Palestinian Liberation Organization,

known to all as the PLO.

-(cheering) -(gunfire)

Pundak: The PLO were a terrorist organization

led by Yasser Arafat,

a man many Israelis considered Hitler's successor.

Arafat believed in armed struggle...

-(explosion) -... fighting for Palestinian freedom.

-(gunfire) -He took pride in the slaughter

of the athletes in the Munich Olympics,

opening fire on school children in Ma'alot,

and planting deadly bombs all over Israel.

The problem was Arafat was the only one

-who Palestinians looked up to. -(cheering)

He had the final say on all negotiations,

but Israel refused to talk to him.

Nine months ago,

Rabin was elected to lead Israel

on a platform of peace and security.

But as the months went by, he delivered neither.

As the terror attacks were on the rise,

and the peace process was deadlocked,

Rabin's right-wing opposition

rose in the polls, and threatened to overrun him

before he even completed his first year in office.

(Parliament member speaking Hebrew)

Pundak: In a desperate attempt to renew the peace talks,

Professor Hirschfeld decided to act outside the law,

and set up a secret back channel

to negotiate with the PLO.

"If we get caught," Hirschfeld said,

"we will be charged with treason and espionage,

and probably end up in jail."

"Sounds like a sweet offer,"

I winked at Hirschfeld.

Shimon Peres: We were in a very strange situation.

Legally...

the law forbids us

to come into contact

with the Palestinians.

I thought this foolish.

If you don't go to contact the Palestinians,

what are you going to do?

And terror was very painful.

I mean, bombs in cars, in buses,

all over the world! They were very active.

They had quite an organization of terror.

Abu Ala: The Oslo process,

which I like to call the Accidental Channel,

was neither pre-planned nor pre-programmed.

My own partial involvement began in December '92,

when I was sent by the PLO to Norway,

to meet secretly with two Israeli professors.

On my long flight from Tunisia to Oslo,

I remembered the day

I was forced to flee my home in Abu Dis,

when the PLO was declared illegal.

I left my family and home behind,

under the oppressive occupation of the Israeli Army,

and swore I'd return the day we were liberated.

-(yelling) -(gunfire)

In the past 25 years,

Rabin was known to us as the "Bone Breaker,"

the architect of the iron fist policy of repression.

The idea of meeting our occupiers face-to-face

did not appeal to me at all.

But the freedom of Palestine

demanded all of us to take high risks.

Pundak: To muddy our tracks,

we informed the university we would take part in

an academic summit held by the Norwegians.

We were supplied with fake pamphlets

and a made-up schedule, which was a complete lie.

The pamphlets never stated that the summit

will consist of only five participants:

two Israelis and three Palestinians from Tunis.

-(jet engine roaring) -(airport chatter)

As we approached the secluded villa,

hidden deep within the Norwegian forest,

a chill ran through my spine.

Negotiating with terrorists was one thing in theory,

but now, I was just hoping

that we didn't make a terrible mistake.

Our first handshake was rather tense.

I scanned the people in front of me,

and matched their faces to the memos

we had prepared back home.

Abu Ala served as

the Palestinian minister of finance.

Beside him sat Maher El-Kurd,

Arafat's confidant.

The youngest of the group was Hassan Asfour,

a militant communist

who was the most aggressive of the three.

The Palestinians wanted to know who we were,

and who we represented.

But all we could say was that we were two professors

who were here against the law.

Hirschfeld: The morning started bad.

The morning started bad.

Abu Ala said,

"We Palestinians understand how difficult it was

"to live under Nazi occupation in Norway.

"You surely understand how difficult it was

to live, for us to live under Israeli occupation."

And if he would've wanted

to say something more irritating me,

and more getting me up, like, this is--

There are certain things you're not allowed to do.

If you really think that there's any comparison

between Israelis and Palestinians,

and the Nazis...

if you ever say this again,

I'm going to stand up and move out.

It never came back.

It never came back again,

and I think this was a very...

it was a very unpleasant start,

but it was an important start.

Ala: We knew that all past negotiations

had been fruitless,

and in order to tempt Rabin,

we had to come up with a completely new offer.

To be perfectly honest, I said,

we are standing on the verge of a new war,

which will harm both sides.

We are serious in reaching an understanding with you

and are open for a historic compromise.

Until now,

we have demanded your immediate withdrawal

from the occupied territories,

but we realize it won't happen overnight.

Arafat wants to bring up the possibility

of withdrawal from the Gaza Strip

as a first step toward peace.

Pundak: Hirschfeld and I exchanged glances,

although we were trying to conceal them,

we were stunned.

The PLO was considered an extremist group,

and here was Arafat's messenger

with a game-changer solution.

Interviewer: Did you trust the Israelis from the beginning?

It is not easy to say that

when you start talking with your enemy that you trust.

But you-- if you want peace,

you should convince yourself to trust,

and later on, by experience,

you can say that's serious or not.

The guys which we met...

...Hirschfeld or Pundak,

it seems to me, after more than a meeting, they were serious.

Pundak: When the meeting was over,

Hirschfeld and I retreated to our rooms to compose

the first draft of the developing proposal.

We began by nervously typing the words,

"Gaza first,"

on a Norwegian letterhead,

so that if it leaked,

Israel could deny its existence.

Now we were left with the most difficult task of all--

presenting the draft to the decision makers.

Beilin: The big tension was,

how would Peres take it?

But more than that, how would Rabin take it?

I was almost sure

that once Peres takes it to Rabin,

Rabin will throw him away.

So, I told Peres I sent Yair Hirschfeld and Ron Pundak

to Oslo to meet some PLO people.

And after some meetings, they have this paper,

and I really want you to look at it