Sunday, November 21, 2004

Palestinian editor: Arafat expected Oslo to force Jews to flee Israel

Listen, Abdel Bari, I know that you are opposed to the Oslo Accords, but you must always remember what I'm going to tell you. The day will come when you will see thousands of Jews fleeing Palestine. I will not live to see this, but you will definitely see it in your lifetime. The Oslo Accords will help bring this about.



-- PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat to Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based daily al-Quds al-Arabi, 1994.


Other new revelations from Abdel Bari:

  • "President Arafat was the one who established the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in response to the attempt to marginalize him after the failure of the Camp David summit."

  • At the 2000 Camp David summit, Arafat "wasn't prepared to sign a final agreement with the Jewish state. He was well aware that such an agreement would make him go down in history as a traitor because he would have to give up the right of return for the refugees and most of the sovereignty over east Jerusalem."




Abdel Bari takes heart, though: "The Jews did not escape from Palestine by the thousands as President Arafat predicted. But they have started packing their bags to run away from the Gaza Strip and some settlements in the West Bank. There are also signs of emigration to Europe, the US and Canada following the suicide bombings and the sense of insecurity among Israelis."



This is consistent with the late Faisal Husseini's remark that Oslo was intended as a "Trojan Horse" to bring about the destruction of Israel.

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