# 315 – Thank-you, Oslo

November 9, 2017

I was in London. I had a spare evening. I was a strongly advised to see the acclaimed play ‘Oslo’ – by a person who, I must say, has been one of my fiercest critics, someone for whom I great affection, but whom I consider to be ’naïvely left-wing’.  They are one of the main reasons that originally inspired me to write my ‘Letter from Israel’. They are among the ‘innocently ignorant’ masses who fall into the trap of focusing on..

• Israel’s illegal settlements

• Israel’s non-existent propaganda machine

• Israel’s army ‘killing Palestinian children’

• Israel’s Occupation

• Israel’s Goliath to Palestine’s David

• Etc.

The Norwegians have, in Israel, a reputation of being ‘naïve left-wingers’. ‘Oslo’ focuses on the work of 2 Norwegians: Mona Juul, an official in the Foreign Ministry, and her husband, Terje Rod-Larsen, Director of the Fafo Institute, which studies ‘work and living conditions’.

Terje took on the plight of the Palestinians. To cut an incredible and long story short, he and his wife secretly approached the 2 sides, and succeeded in bringing them together. Initially, and necessarily, these meetings were totally secret. The play shows how the characters start to realise that their opponents in this horrible conflict were also humans, with similar humour, emotion and anger.

Continuing to cut this short, the Israelis succeeded in getting the Palestinians to recognise Israel’s right to a state/homeland, and vice versa, the PLO to represent the Palestinians and their right to a homeland/state.

I don’t think I need to write more. Hindsight speaks for itself. Very few on the Right or the Left feel that the accords, which included meetings in Stockholm, Camp David, Nobel prizes etc . etc. were a success. Far from it from some points of view –

Gaza is still a slum.

Rabin was assassinated.

The Israelis secretly entered Arafat’s bedroom and gave him syphilis.

Jordan is still Jew-free.

Egypt has redefined democracy.

Syria is not yet ‘Heaven on Earth’.

For some reason, Iran and Saudi don’t get on.

Abbas in is his 11th year of a 4-year term.

And Israel continues to be, in general, a great place to live – especially for the Palestinians.

Oh, I could go on and on.

So, despite there being very close to zero chance of peace, we gotta be seen to be trying. The wonderful and democratic international community (translation: political correctness) demands it.

Stephen