Original subtitles

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

(clattering)

(flames roaring)

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

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

(shouting, screaming)

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.

(chuckles)

(speaking Hebrew)

(speaking Hebrew)

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.

(speaking Arabic)

-(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.

(gunfire)

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.

(speaking Hebrew)

(crowd chanting)

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.

(speaking Hebrew)

(Rabin speaking Hebrew)

(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.

(talking in Hebrew)

"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.

♪ ♪

(cars honking)

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.

(newsman speaking Hebrew)

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.

♪ ♪

(indistinct conversation)

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.

(indistinct conversation)

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.

(indistinct conversation)

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...

(muttering)

...Hirschfeld or Pundak,

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

♪ ♪

(wind blowing)

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.

(Pundak speaking Hebrew)

♪ ♪

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

presenting the draft to the decision makers.

(distant bells ringing)

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

and decide what we are doing with it.

So, "Okay, thank you."

Then, next day, I'm asking him,

Shimon, did you read the paper?

He said, "No," and, "Yeah, I saw it."

Another day, did you read the paper? "No, I didn't."

And then he read it.

And then he understood that

he had something explosive in his hands.

No, I didn't take it seriously.

I didn't take it seriously.

The draft wasn't worth, in my eyes,

a penny, a thing. Not at all.

The fact, the important fact was

the discovery of Abu Ala.

A plan without Abu Ala,

you had many plans like it.

Brit Shalom.

Full of-- Take the papers, they are full of plans.

I don't think that there are any region in the world

that has so many plans,

with so little results, in the Middle East.

(crowd shouting)

(crowd chanting)

Pundak: As the wave of terror engulfed the streets,

the protests outside the homes

of Rabin and Peres became routine.

The two leaders were stuck

between a rock and a hard place.

They were losing their war against terror,

and the peace process showed no signs of revival.

Perhaps the Oslo channel was their only way out.

With a heavy heart,

they authorized us to continue the talks,

as long as we exercised every precaution

to keep the news from leaking.

If it became known we were deliberating with the PLO,

it would be their last day in office.

Now that the leaders were involved,

we were no longer in the driver's seat.

Peres announced that the Oslo channel

will now be lead by Uri Savir,

the director general of the foreign ministry,

and Joel Singer,

a rigid military lawyer.

♪ ♪

Joel Singer: Now, we are bringing a military lawyer.

♪ Pam-pam-pam-pam-paam! ♪

Former colonel that was dealing

with the law in the West Bank and Gaza,

and I come there

to meet with the PLO,

terrorist, murderers.

So, from my perspective,

it was like a theater.

As I go into the room,

and see Abu Ala the first time,

he comes to me,

and kisses me on both cheeks.

A terrorist is kissing me.

Oh my God, I've been kissed by a terrorist.

And probably, he thought, "I just kissed...

a milita-- a former military--"

I mean...

men don't kiss one another

in the United States

or in Israel.

(laughs)

That was the first time a man

kissed me.

♪ ♪

Savir: Before the first round of talks,

I decided to get acquainted

with my counter partner, Abu Ala.

"Where are you from," he asked.

Jerusalem, I replied.

"I am also from Jerusalem," he said.

"Where is your father from?"

He was born in Germany.

"My father was born in Jerusalem

and still lives there," he said.

We can go all the way back to King David, I replied,

and didn't try to conceal my anger.

I'm sure we could argue about the past for years

and never reach an agreement.

Let's try and see if we can agree on the future.

"All right," he said,

"And we'll reach our first mutual understanding.

We won't argue about the past ever again."

(Savir speaking Hebrew)

♪ ♪

Pundak: Singer started the meeting

by announcing that we had a real concrete proposal

for the signed agreement.

All trace of our optimistic document was erased

and was replaced by Rabin's agenda

that put security and defense

before cooperation and coexistence.

(indistinct conversation)

Rabin had refused to deliberate

on the core issues of the conflicts,

demanding to discuss them at a later stage.

His offer did not include

any mention of uprooting settlements,

dividing Jerusalem,

the return of the Palestinian refugees,

and definitive borders.

As the reading commenced,

the Palestinians' astonishment grew.

After a few minutes,

Abu Ala turned to Asfour

and muttered quietly in Arabic,

"It's a massacre."

♪ ♪

Ala: The last round of talks

left me more confused than ever.

Despite Singer's humiliating offer,

it was clear we are now in the major leagues.

It was no longer an initiative

of two peace-loving professors,

but of Rabin and Peres themselves.

All the while, the news painted

an entirely different picture.

Rabin tightened his fist.

Everyday, demonstrators were being killed

throughout Palestine,

some of them, innocent kids.

Who should we believe?

The reality on TV or Uri's promises?

(Rabin speaking Hebrew)

♪ ♪

Ala: The next round of talks

had been an epic battle over the text of the agreement.

Both parties,

unwilling to compromise,

appear to be heading for a final showdown.

♪ ♪

We all stuck to our guns

as our leaders had instructed us.

I found it hard to remember to eat.

At times,

I had to remember to breathe.

On the 11th round in Oslo,

we arrived with a proposition of our own.

Perhaps Singer and the Israeli delegation

thought we would surrender to their terms,

but that would not be the case.

(indistinct chatter)

Our revised proposition stated,

the end goal will be the UN Resolution 242,

demanding Israel's withdrawal

from the occupied territories.

Savir: The Palestinian proposition enraged me,

and I responded with outright opposition.

We will not acknowledge Resolution 242

because it means retreating to the '67 borders,

and we refuse to discuss borders at this stage.

We started believing the PLO

were our partners in this initiative,

but when we put our cards down,

the PLO always seems to back away

from any clear decision.

Maybe people were right, saying that the Palestinians

never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

Singer: There was a lot of tension.

People walking out of the room,

slamming the doors,

but it was all a game.

You know? We knew that...

that they are...

desperate to reach an agreement.

(chuckles) I just said, let them...

Let it... We need to let it all play out,

and then we'll just say no.

♪ ♪

Ala: The Israeli's dismissed our proposition,

refusing to discuss the definitive borders

at this stage.

I said to Uri,

you refuse to recognize our national rights

and insist on retaining all the settlements.

We prefer to wait another 10 years

for a reasonable offer.

(indistinct chatter)

Uri fired back,

"In that case, you will keep waiting

for the Messiah to arrive."

I said to Uri,

we have made every possible effort

to reach a peace agreement with you,

but, unfortunately,

I now find myself unable to go on.

I have decided to resign from the talks.

Savir: The room fell silent.

A dark expression spread across Abu Ala's face,

and he seemed powerless

as he rose to his feet and left the room.

This time, it was really over.

Ala: Within myself,

my feelings were mixed.

For years, we have fought for freedom

on all of Palestine,

but now we were offered peace

with heavy compromises.

The weight on my shoulders had become unbearable.

Will I fail my people by abandoning peace,

or by abandoning the struggle?

(Savir speaking Hebrew)

♪ ♪

Ala: Uri asked me how I was feeling.

I didn't hide my emotions.

Both sides are stubborn,

and do not grasp the importance of the moment.

I just cannot continue this negotiation.

Savir: I told Abu Ala,

if you can't cure the illness,

we must find its cause.

Let's put aside the maps and the agreements

and begin with recognizing each other as partners.

The PLO will denounce all terror attacks against Israel,

and we will stop viewing you as terrorists

and allow Arafat to return to his homeland.

Ala: I promised Uri I would present

his mutual recognition proposal to Arafat in Tunis.

Perhaps this round of talks

wasn't a complete failure after all.

(indistinct chatter)

Interviewer: I understand that you were born in Abu Dis

and you left this area many years ago.

Do you think, do you dream about

your coming back to your home?

That's my dream in all the period

which I am so far from it, yeah.

-To go back? -Exactly.

And what to do?

To live there as a citizen.

And it's too much for me.

Singer: We were negotiating in Oslo

in complete secrecy.

No one knew about it outside of this

very small group.

And then,

when we were in Oslo,

suddenly, it leaked out.

The story leaked out.

♪ ♪

(newsman speaking Hebrew)

(speaking Hebrew)

Beilin: The worst thing that could happen

was the premature exposure of the channel.

Reporters kept calling me,

and I consistently denied everything,

without giving any unnecessary explanations.

But I knew, we couldn't keep up

this charade much longer.

(crowd yelling)

It was only a matter of time until the Likud

used the talks to make Rabin and Peres

seem like traitors,

who were conspiring with the murderous Arafat.

(speaking Hebrew)

Singer: We were trying to beat the clock

by reaching an agreement before

a premature leakage would

stop the Oslo agreement.

♪ ♪

Ala: The mutual recognition option

excited the leadership in Tunis,

and I was sent back to Oslo with Arafat's support.

It seemed as if the Israelis

returned with a deep desire to move forward as well.

(chatter, laughter)

(interviewer speaking Hebrew)

(reporter and Pundak speaking Hebrew)

♪ ♪

Savir: The next day, we started with a crucial debate.

We zeroed in on the difficult problems first.

Terms move from line to line.

Substitute words replaced problematic ones.

Unnecessary sentences

were tossed into the large draft bin.

Although it was clear that there was only one pathway

that would lead to peace between the two nations,

each side feared the reaction of its people

when they'd be presented with an agreement

that included painful concessions.

(indistinct conversation)

Abu Ala would be considered a traitor

for signing an agreement that abstained discussing

the fate of the settlements.

And I didn't want to know what names we'd be called

when it became known that the Oslo team

had divided up the Holy Land.

♪ ♪

Singer: We managed to progressively

narrow down our differences

to five open issues.

And we went back and forth, and back and forth,

and... early in the morning,

4:00 in the morning,

we reached...

full agreement on those five issues.

♪ ♪

Pundak: At 5:00 a.m.,

the Norwegians' printer delivered the final draft

of the Declaration of Principles for peace

between Israel and the PLO.

It stated that as a first step,

Israel would withdraw from Gaza and Jericho

and grant the Palestinians authority for self-governance.

In the second stage,

which would take place within a year,

the Palestinians' authority

would expand to most of the West Bank.

And within five years,

a permanent peace treaty will be signed,

addressing the core issues of settlements,

Palestinian refugees,

definitive borders, and Jerusalem.

♪ ♪

(indistinct conversations)

♪ ♪

(Savir speaking Hebrew)

(indistinct conversation)

(applause)

(applause)

(news show theme playing)

Good evening. Israel and the PLO

are not far from a historic embrace tonight.

Singer: I remember there was a TV set

with multiple stations,

Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish,

and everyone was talking in

incomprehensible words, you know, foreign languages--

"Oslo, PLO..." (gibbering)

"Oslo, PLO."

(speaking foreign language)

(reporter speaking Japanese)

And it was all over the world,

and that was stunning, to suddenly realize that,

wow, we caused this.

It-- you know... It's us that they are talking about.

Twenty-nine years after declaring Israel an illegal state,

the Palestine Liberation Organization has decided

to recognize Israel's right to exist peacefully.

And after decades of calling

the PLO a terrorist organization,

Israel finally recognizes the PLO

as the legitimate representative

of the Palestinian people.

Given the history of the Palestinians and the Israelis,

which has involved so much of the rest of the world,

it is, in a word, staggering.

♪ ♪

Newsman: The last-minute negotiations

went on for a day and a half, nonstop.

But when the haggard Norwegian mediator arrived in Tunis,

he said he had the historic

documents of recognition in his bag.

The success wasn't his doing, he said modestly,

but belonged to Israeli Prime Minister Rabin

and PLO Chairman Arafat.

In the one-page letter from Arafat to Rabin,

"the PLO recognizes the right of the State of Israel

to exist in peace and security."

In his return letter to Arafat,

Rabin says that in view of those commitments,

the government of Israel has decided to recognize

"the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people."

♪ ♪

Mm-hmm.

(crowd shouting, chanting)

I want to tell you

that this is a day

I never expected to see.

That our government would recognize

a terrorist, murderous organization.

Newsman: In the Middle East today,

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin

will fly to Washington

for the signing ceremony of the Oslo Agreement

between Israel and the Palestinians.

Yasser Arafat will arrive from Tunis for the signing,

which will be his first visit to America

since the PLO were denied entrance to the US.

Right-wing opponents are calling

the signing of the treaty treason,

while Arab opposition is calling Arafat

a traitor to the Palestinian cause,

and threats have been made on his life.

♪ ♪

(applause)

Daniel Kurtzer: From the perspective of an American diplomat,

these were the best days of, of my life

because there was something actually being consummated.

An agreement was actually about to be signed,

so sure, there were last-minute difficulties.

Would Arafat come with his uniform on?

Would he have a gun in his holster?

How do you avoid kissing Arafat when he shakes your hand?

I mean, the lesson that we gave to Warren Christopher,

which is you take the person by the hand,

and with your other hand, you hold his elbow.

And, in effect, that becomes your distance,

where if he starts to come forward at you,

you just, you don't have to push him away.

He's just away already.

(applause)

(camera shutters clicking)

Nabil Shaath: Well, in my last meeting with Clinton,

just before the celebration started,

he took me aside and said he wanted two concessions.

I said, Mr. Clinton, we gave enough concessions. (laughs)

He said, "No, no, no, these are personal."

He said, "Concession one,

"could you prevail on Mr. Arafat

"to come dressed in a French suit

and abandon his military garb?"

I said,

this was part of the way his people view him.

So I said, I'm sorry, I can't give you that concession.

What's the second one? So he said,

"No hugging, no kissing."

(laughing)

And I said,

this a very tough concession,

but for peace,

I'll do it. (laughing)

♪ ♪

Newsman: They brought the morning shows to the White House today.

Tucked away at the bottom of the South Lawn were Charlie,

and Paula,

and Bryant, and Kate.

Sure signs that history was about to be made.

The people are rejoicing, celebrating the occasion,

and that they are waving olive branches,

and they are singing, and...

they send us a message of solidarity.

Interviewer: Do you realize what's going on today here?

-What is going on here? -Do you understand the situation?

The Palestinian state is emerging.

♪ ♪

(applause)

Presentator: Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Arafat,

chairman of the executive council

of the Palestine Liberation Organization,

His Excellency Yitzhak Rabin,

prime minister of Israel,

the President of the United States.

(applause)

Peres: Yitzhak didn't want to come to Washington.

He says, "I... don't want to see Arafat." (laughs)

The one that convinced him

to stand up with Arafat was Clinton.

And as you saw in the picture, Clinton holds the two of them,

almost by force.

(applause)

Finally, Yitzhak shook the hands of Arafat.

He turned to me and he says,

"Now, it's you, your time..." (laughs) " to shake his hands."

He went through the hell,

now I have to go through the hell.

It was very difficult for him.

Interviewer: Why do you think it was so difficult for him?

Because he was against the PLO.

Because...

his heart wasn't there.

Because he saw in Arafat

a terrorist.

But, you know, I cannot change the past of anybody.

Finally, Yitzhak said it.

You make peace with your enemies,

not with your friends.

To everything, there is a season

and a time,

to every purpose under heaven.

A time to be born,

and a time to die.

A time to kill,

and a time to heal.

A time to weep,

and a time to laugh.

A time to love,

and a time to hate.

A time of war,

and a time of peace.

Ladies and gentlemen,

the time for peace has come.

(applause)

♪ ♪

(cheering)

(cheering)

(cheering)

(cars honking)

Interviewer: Do you feel proud?

I feel proud, but I'm afraid.

Of what?

Of the failure.

-Why? -Therefore...

Because we are still in the beginning, in the start.

But you are so optimistic.

I should be. I should be, but...

at the same time, also in my side,

I... feel afraid.

Because both of us should work very, very, very hard,

and we should trust each other more, and more, and more.

Without a trust, we cannot continue.

(indistinct chatter)

Savir: After the ceremony,

when the crowd started to disperse,

I spotted Abu Ala with a group of Palestinian officials.

I walked towards him,

and he shot me an embarrassed look.

(indistinct chatter)

We were no longer protected by the intimacy of Oslo,

but trapped in plain sight

and suddenly feeling alienated.

At that moment, we turned from secret partners

to members of opposing teams.

Newsman: When you shook hands with Mr. Rabin,

it looked like it was your idea, not his.

He... he hesitated a little bit,

but I insisted,

and I continued stretching my hand to him.

Now, looking at the longer term,

do you recognize that if Mr. Rabin has his way,

Jerusalem, as he puts it,

will never be the capital of a Palestinian state.

Do you recognize that? Do you accept that?

He said Jerusalem, not unified Jerusalem.

Yes?

-He said Jerusalem. -Yes.

He's a politician. He know...

He knows exactly what he is saying.

The Israelis will never pull back from Jerusalem.

They never will, will they?

Do you believe they ever will?

Yeah, I think if there is a will, there is a way.

But there isn't a will on their side!

Who knows?

Who knows?

Some weeks ago,

nobody was imagining that we'll find that solution,

and this agreement.

Not to forget

that Berlin Wall had fallen.

♪ ♪

Newsman: This is IBA Radio from Jerusalem,

and here are the news.

One month after the historic signing in Washington,

Israel and the Palestinians gather once again

for a round of negotiations. This time to implement

the first stage of the Oslo Accord--

Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and Jericho.

The negotiations will be lead by

Israeli deputy chief of staff, Amnon Shahak,

and on the Palestinian side, Nabil Shaath,

Arafat's chief advisor.

(camera shutters clicking)

Newswoman: How significant is this? How important?

This is the implementation of the agreement.

This is the most important part of our agreement.

Newswoman 2: But how important is it

to the succession of the whole process?

If we succeed,

the whole thing will succeed. And we will succeed.

Shaath: My first meeting with General Amnon Shahak

was quite pleasant, in fact.

The man, very modestly, came to me and said,

"Dr. Shaath, here is my speech.

"And you know, I have never given speeches before,

"I am a straight military man.

So, why don't you look into that speech?"

And I felt that this was really, very modest

and very positive starting point.

But between that first meeting

and the second meeting, which came out

after the weekend and so on, four, five days later,

I went through

Google and other sources

to find out about General Amnon Lipkin-Shahak.

(helicopter whirring)

(explosion)

Shaath: And I found he was part of the raiding party

that killed three of my dearest friends in Beirut.

And I thought about it, and I said,

I'm sorry, I cannot...

get myself to negotiate with you. I mean...

it's very difficult. These were very close friends of mine.

They're brothers, and...

I don't know,

I don't feel like it's fair

to negotiate with you.

So, Amnon Shahak said,

"But, Nabil...

we are here so that we'll never repeat that."

♪ ♪

(reporters chattering)

Ala: On February 19th,

Nabil Shaath and General Shahak

presented us with the first draft

of the Gaza-Jericho agreement.

(chattering)

The draft was clearly pro-Israeli,

but promised us rewards

we didn't dream of just a year ago.

Such as passports,

an international airport in Jericho,

and for the first time in history,

democratic Palestinian elections.

We were on the right path,

but our utopian bubble

was destined to shatter violently.

(news theme song playing)

(speaking Hebrew)

♪ ♪

Savir: At 5:00 a.m. on Friday,

February 25th,

Dr. Baruch Goldstein, a religious settler,

dressed in his army uniform,

grabbed an Uzi submachine gun

and opened fire on the people in prayer

at the Cave of the Patriarchs.

(siren blaring)

(screaming, crying)

Thirty-one people were murdered during the massacre,

that ended only when Goldstein himself was killed.

(crying, yelling)

(yelling)

The news spread quickly,

and violent riots broke out

across the entire occupied territories.

Israeli soldiers opened fire on the protesters,

killing nine Palestinians,

and injuring hundreds more.

♪ ♪

(man speaking Hebrew)

Goldstein quickly established

a fan base among the settlers,

hundreds attended his funeral,

and many of them praised him as a hero and a saint.

We urged Rabin to clear out the Hebron settlers.

It would be a brave move

that could restore the Palestinians' trust

in the peace process.

But the army generals claimed

that vacating the settlers from Hebron

could cause a civil war.

Rarely have I seen Peres so determined

to reach a decision that opposes the military.

(speaking Hebrew)

(Knesset member speaking Hebrew)

(Knesset member yelling)

(Knesset member yelling)

(yelling continues)

Beilin: We were sure that as a result of the debate,

the Jewish Israeli residents of Hebron

will be taken away from this place.

And I waited at home-- I mean, it was Friday.

I waited at home

for another hour, another hour to hear the news,

and in the news, there was nothing.

And I thought,

what could happen? I mean, maybe it was a secret.

Maybe it happened and nobody...

informed about.

Maybe censorship.

But of course, eventually,

the decision was not to do that.

It was really...

inconceivable.

It was inconceivable.

(indistinct chattering)

♪ ♪

Ashrawi: The Palestinians demanded

the settlements be cleared out.

But Israel refused, and instead

put the Arab residents of Hebron under lockdown.

Once again, the victims were being punished.

Saeb Erekat: When Oslo was signed,

82 percent of Palestinians supported us,

supported Oslo,

and they saw hope.

And they gave every chance

to get hope.

And then,

with their eyes,

they continued to see business as usual.

Settlement activities,

incursions, demolition of homes, and so on,

and so on, and so on. Business as usual.

This is the land that's supposed to be a Palestinian state.

Why are they building settlements?

(crowds yelling)

♪ ♪

Ashrawi: Our worst nightmare had come true.

Arafat was torn between his people

and the need to appease the Americans and the Israelis.

(yelling)

He is slowly losing his credibility

in the eyes of the Palestinians.

He is losing control.

(gunfire)

Mahmoud al-Zahar: The people now are totally convinced

with the attitude of Hamas

after the massacres.

So, what do you think will happen to Fatah, for example?

They are going to lose

much of the support of the people

who believed in Fatah at the time.

You know that people in Israel

are really terrified of revenge now?

(sighs)

Yes, everybody is angry, actually,

and it is expected for revenge.

(sirens blaring)

(indistinct yelling)

(screaming)

(sirens blaring)

(indistinct yelling)

(screaming)

Beilin: The Palestinian attacks

began 40 days

after the massacre in Hebron.

Exactly the 40 days of mourning.

It was Afula and Hedera,

and you see blood

on the streets, and people are saying,

"This is the peace you promised us."

And you could not say,

don't forget! It was only a DOP!

What is DOP? What it, what?

Wasn't there a ceremony

with Arafat, and Rabin, and Clinton?

Wasn't it peace?

♪ ♪

Ala: On March '94,

we headed back to the negotiating table.

Since the wave of suicide bombings,

Israel has put two and a half million Palestinians under closure.

Poverty was rising throughout the occupied territories,

and living conditions declining.

Our people were losing faith

in the peace process,

but I knew we must not give up.

(speaking Hebrew)

(continuing indistinctly)

Savir: Despite the blood and the violence,

the process had a force of its own.

And on May '94,

we set out to sign the Gaza-Jericho agreement,

granting the Palestinians self-rule in Gaza.

♪ ♪

Newsman: After eight months of talks,

the stage was finally set.

Egypt President Mubarak

provided a suitably dramatic setting

for the ceremony in Cairo.

♪ ♪

Ashrawi: The morning of the signing of

the Gaza-Jericho agreement,

Faisal and I were being interviewed in Jerusalem,

while watching a live broadcast of the ceremony.

On my way to the interview,

I was held up by the Israeli soldiers at the checkpoints.

Someone said to me, "This is your idea of peace?

"Tell the old man not to sign. Tell him to come wait

"at the checkpoint and sign it here,

along with the rest of us."

I stared at the screen in wonder.

Is this a celebration of

the birth of the peace process,

or its burial?

(applause)

Newsman: Both sides appear to have

sorted out differences over the Gaza Strip and Jericho,

but within minutes, it was clear that the deal,

like the stage positions,

was not going to plan.

Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen,

the signing of the Gaza-Jericho self-rule agreement.

Singer: I'm sitting there, and I see Arafat signing the document,

signing the document, signing the document.

All the documents,

and then the guy that assisted him

brought the maps. He looked at them, opened,

didn't sign, closed it,

and went back to stand,

and Rabin was walking to do the same.

So, I walk up the stairs,

and I stand next to Rabin,

and as he begins to sign,

I open it, and then I whisper in his ear,

without show--

trying not to show any excitement

because everything was recorded

and filmed. And I told him,

Arafat did not sign the maps.

So he says, "So, what does it mean?"

I responded, it means that there is no agreement.

Newsman: Israel's prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin,

examines the documents,

called over Foreign Minister Shimon Peres,

and also refused to sign.

♪ ♪

For a while, it seemed as if

the entire ceremony was about to collapse.

♪ ♪

Dennis Ross: Because we had not been a part of that channel,

we didn't fully appreciate

what the gaps were between the two sides.

Israel saw this as a devolution of power

as the Palestinians prove themselves.

Palestinians saw this as,

we have to show this is a new day,

and as a new day,

we have to have all the trappings of statehood

even if we don't have it formally yet.

So, immediately, they wanted, you know,

they didn't want controls over crossing points.

They wanted, they wanted immediately to say,

you know, the Israelis are out of our lives.

♪ ♪

Peres: What happened with Arafat

that in all negotiations,

He says, "La, la, la."

He says, "No, no, no."

What I did, I was at very good terms with Mubarak.

They wanted peace seriously.

So I would go to them and says, again, he said no.

They would call him up

and said, stop it.

Mubarak said it publicly while he was on the stage,

he called him ibn kalb ,

the son of a bitch.

(murmuring)

Newsman: After a brief interval, the PLO leader was assured

that the size of the Jericho region

was still under negotiation.

He signed the document and added a few comments.

Finally, with the briefest of handshakes, a deal was done,

at the very last minute.

(applause)

♪ ♪

(helicopters whirring)

(crowds yelling)

Ashrawi: On July 1st, 1994,

Yasser Arafat returned to his home,

and reclaimed his position as the Palestinian leader.

It was an ambivalent return.

He came back and had to govern Palestine,

which was divided and driven apart.

Or perhaps Israel brought him back in order to control him.

What was the price we had to pay

for his return home?

Was this one of Oslo's minefields?

Or was it the first step toward peace

and the liberation of Palestine?

♪ ♪

Ala: As we made our way to Palestine,

my heart pounded,

and I was choked with the emotion of the moment.

I wept as I had never wept before,

kissing and hugging all my relatives and friends.

(excited chatter)

The last time I met my father in Jordan,

I hinted that I might be coming home soon.

He cried and raised his hand,

swearing he will prepare a feast on my return.

My sadness was

that my father had passed away

just four month earlier,

after waiting to my return

for so many years.

Soon, I called Uri.

I said I am finally back in my childhood home.

He greeted me with the Arab words of welcome,

Ahlan wa sahlan,

and told me he was truly pleased to hear my voice.

We have become neighbors at last.

(indistinct chatter)

Savir: One week after Abu Ala's return to Abu Dis,

we met once again in Taba.

This time, in order to negotiate

the second stage of the Oslo process--

Israel's withdrawal from the West Bank.

I spread out the maps we had kept secret until then.

♪ ♪

The Oslo Accord stated

Israel will withdraw from most of the West Bank within a year,

and the Palestinians were expecting

to receive control over the land immediately.

But Israel demanded a gradual withdrawal,

and offered the Palestinians

full control on only two percent of the land.

The remaining 98 percent

will be controlled by the Israeli Army.

Arafat stared at the map silently,

and then announced that it was an unbearable humiliation.

"These are prison camps," he yelled.

"You want to destroy me."

With those words, Arafat left the room.

(indistinct chatter)

Ala: What you are suggesting

deviates from the signed agreement, I shouted.

You keep 98 percent of the land?

We won't accept that.

You can enforce this approach on Arafat

and push him into a corner,

but remember this,

a one-sided agreement will not last.

Savir: Abu Ala stood up without saying another word,

and summoned his driver.

We exchanged a polite and cold handshake,

and we each went our separate ways.

(indistinct chatter)

♪ ♪

As hours went by,

we waited nervously in the hotel's lobby.

Some Israeli reporters informed us

that Arafat had issued a statement

about the talks collapsing.

We were all on edge,

but refused to cave in.

(speaking Hebrew)

(playing, singing folk music)

Savir: Later that evening,

Arafat's personal assistant

came rushing towards me.

"Arafat asks that you come to Abu Ala's room immediately."

She said, "He's collapsed."

I rushed to Abu Ala's room,

and found him lying in bed,

pale as a ghost, trembling,

nodding in and out of consciousness.

♪ ♪

Hold on my friend,

I whispered.

I need you to stay with me.

The doctors found Abu Ala's collapse

to be a result of extreme fatigue

caused by the many hours of negotiations.

(siren blaring)

But I knew the truth.

The map I presented to him

had broken his heart.

There was something very personal in peace-making.

It wasn't a political...

festival. It wasn't a political ambition.

It was a very human ambition.

♪ ♪

There's a symbolic...

picture, where people

went to Israeli tanks in the streets

and put olive branches.

The tanks that destroyed your lives and your homes,

the army that killed your kids and oppressed you.

People went out

and gave them flowers

and gave them olive branches,

and felt that this was it.

This is the end of the conflict.

This is the end of the occupation.

♪ ♪

It was a moment of hope...

a moment of promise.

But people's hopes were dashed

and it didn't materialize into a reality.

So, yes, of course, I feel...

sad and responsible.

♪ ♪

(Peres speaking Hebrew)

♪ ♪

Beilin: I had a meeting with Yair and Ron.

We all felt that the time was running out,

and that we had to act fast.

We agreed on deliberations

that would lead to a permanent agreement,

utilizing the same framework

we used in Oslo.

Quick, discreet talks,

and no empty slogans.

Mahmoud Abbas and I deliberated

over the drafts for almost two years,

behind the scenes,

without the racket of the Taba Hotel.

We touched on the most

sensitive points of the process,

for the very first time.

At least, theoretically,

we had a document in our hands,

with a comprehensive solution.

A withdrawal to the '67 borders,

the establishment of a Palestinian state, of course,

keeping the settlement blocks intact,

and making Jerusalem the capital of both nations.

My plan was to set up a meeting with Rabin.

I told him that I would like to meet with him

about the permanent solution.

And he said, "As soon as possible," so I told him,

let's do it when I return from the United States

on Saturday, November 11th.

No one could've guessed under what circumstances

that meeting would take place.

♪ ♪

Savir: On September 5th,

we reassembled in Taba.

I must admit,

after our last encounter,

I wasn't looking forward to another round

of this endless boxing match.

We were stressed,

exhausted,

and most of all,

fed up.

It was not long before the negotiation, once again,

deteriorated to an exchange of accusations.

(indistinct conversation)

Kurtzer: It was the nastiest meeting I've ever been in my life.

We just wanted to be anywhere but in that room.

As I was leaving the room, I turned around,

and the Israeli and Palestinian delegations

are talking to each other and having a cup of coffee.

I think it underscores the point that

part of what happens in negotiations is the...

humanization of the other side.

You no longer see just the, quote, unquote, "enemy,"

but you see a person.

And you learn about that person's family

and their ups and downs

and their happy moments, and you get a sense of

how committed they are to peace.

And you never are able to translate that to the public.

(praying in Hebrew)

Savir: That evening, we improvised a Friday prayer service.

We lit candles,

and much to the astonishment of the Palestinians,

Singer recited the Kiddush prayer.

We opened with, "Everybody Loves Saturday Night,"

in three languages.

Afterwards, Abu Ala and myself joked around

by imitating the Peres and Arafat conversation,

while Uri taught Asfour how to sing

"My Yiddishe Momme."

It was nice to kid around again.

♪ ♪

Later that night,

I received a call from Jerusalem.

A bus exploded in the center of the capital.

(sirens blaring)

(indistinct yelling)

(speaking Hebrew)

(TV playing indistinctly)

Savi: We sat and watched the news silently.

No one said a word.

No one doubted our Palestinian friends opposed terror

and that it was directed towards them as well.

Two days later, Abu Ala called me up from his room,

and asked me to watch the Arab evening news with him.

We watched images of a seven-year-old boy's funeral,

a boy who had been killed that day by the Israeli Army.

♪ ♪

Abu Ala was right when he said

that neither side has dominion over suffering.

♪ ♪

That night, Abu Ala and I reached the final draft

of the Oslo-B Agreement.

(speaking Hebrew)

(speaking Hebrew)

(newsman speaking Hebrew)

(murmuring)

(Netanyahu speaking Hebrew)

(crowd cheering, whistles blowing)

(newsman speaking Hebrew)

(chanting in Hebrew)

(helicopters whirring)

Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen,

the President of the United States,

His Majesty King Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,

His Excellency Mohammed Hosni Mubarak,

president of the Arab Republic of Egypt,

His Excellency Yitzhak Rabin, prime minister of Israel,

Chairman Arafat.

♪ ♪

Rabin: Please, take a good, hard look.

The sight you see was impossible,

was unthinkable just two years ago.

(applause)

Only poets dreamt of it,

and to our great pain,

soldier and civilians

went to their death

to make this moment possible.

Shaath: These were the years of hope,

when the two peace camps

felt that they were somehow...

vindicated.

That they are bringing to their people the fruits.

(newsman speaking Hebrew)

Newsman: Abu Ala, are you more optimistic now

than you've been, let's say,

one day after Oslo 1?

(all laughing)

Yes. Yes, I am optimistic.

-Yes? -I believe that...

the process we agreed together,

it will continue,

despite of all difficulties we face,

but it will succeed later.

We have, both, we have a good will

to push this process forward.

Newsman: Uri?

I concur with what Abu Ala said,

and we really have no choice.

And there's some good common language around this table,

as you can see.

(newsman speaking Hebrew)

What is a Jewish sport?

And the saying is,

speech-making.

(laughter)

I start to believe, Chairman Arafat,

that you are close to be Jewish.

(laughter, applause)

(laughter)

Abraham is my grandfather!

Abraham is my grandfather!

(laughter)

(newsman speaking Hebrew)

Our partner.

Our cousin.

(applause)

Yitzhak Rabin.

(clapping, cheering)

(Netanyahu speaking Hebrew)

(crowd jeering)

(crowd cheering)

Savir: Rabin and Arafat felt isolated in the hostile environment.

The peace camp wasn't going out

into the streets to protest.

Instead, they chose to avoid confrontation.

The peace objectors, Hamas on the Palestinian side,

and the Greater Israel camp on our side,

now own public opinion.

The face-off wasn't between Israel and the Palestinians,

but between those who supported peace

and those that objected to it.

(newsman speaking Hebrew)

(indistinct chatter)

Savir: In early October,

John Friedman, a friend of Peres,

convinced him to arrange a rally

in support of the peace process.

Peres urged Rabin to accept the initiative.

But Rabin wondered,

would people even leave their homes?

Those days, Rabin was more pessimistic than ever.

(crowd cheering)

♪ ♪

Newsman: If too much is heard

in the Middle East from the few extremists,

tonight the supporters of peace emerged

in a huge rally in Tel Aviv.

This is the young Israel,

tired of army service,

tired of chasing Palestinian stone-throwing children

through refugee camps.

All sides are mobilizing,

for this is now becoming one of the most contentious moments

in Israeli history.

For the first time, perhaps, the surprise is fading,

and there is a popular momentum for peace.

♪ ♪

(Peres speaking Hebrew)

(crowd cheering)

(singing in Hebrew)

(Peres speaking Hebrew)

(crowd cheering, applauding)

(Rabin speaking Hebrew)

(crowd cheering)

(Peres speaking Hebrew)

(gunshots echo)

♪ ♪

(speaking Hebrew)

(sirens blaring)

(Peres speaking Hebrew)

♪ ♪

(indistinct chatter)

(crying)

(indistinct yelling)

(yelling in Hebrew)

(Peres speaking Hebrew)

(crowd murmuring)

Erekat: You know, these people were fighting each other.

They don't recognize each other, they kill each other,

and so on. It wasn't a play.

But then, later, I saw Rabin's meeting with Arafat.

I saw meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting.

I was there every single meeting,

and I saw how their relationships developed.

After the day when Rabin was assassinated,

Arafat told me,

"They assassinated the peace process in Israel."

And I disagreed with him.

No, Israel is not about an individual.

It's about an institution.

It's about this, they...

have replacements and so on.

And he did like this with his hand and told me,

"They...

assassinated the peace process."

♪ ♪

Beilin: Peres was...

was not himself.

Was not himself.

He was very sad, deeply sad.

He was already the prime minister,

and on Saturday,

I came to his home with all the maps and all the material.

And I said to him,

this is the agreement that we have with Abu Mazen.

I think that we can go for it.

You have the exact border,

you have the solution for Jerusalem,

with everything else,

and...

I think that now is the time.

I mean, everybody's so confused,

including ourselves, but still...

there is a support for peace,

even more than before,

as a result of the assassination,

and let us, "use it,"

for his memory and finish the job.

And,

he listened to me very carefully,

for two hours...

and then he said, "Not now.

"Not now. I don't think that people

are ready to leave the Jordan Valley,"

which was part of the map,

so that Israel should withdraw from the Jordan Valley.

(sniffles) And, uh...

"I think that today to bring it

to the people will... is immature."

Well, it is always immature,

but this is an opportunity.

I was not...

strong enough to tell him

it is your biggest mistake.

Reconsider it.

I did not come again to him with this.

And, uh...

maybe it is in me.

Maybe it is part of my weakness.

Maybe it was just a mistake,

I don't know.

But if you ask me whether I regret it,

I, I do regret it.

I had, I had, apparently,

to fight more

for, for, uh...

for the permanent agreement.

♪ ♪

Savir: On May 5th, 1996,

I found myself back in the familiar surroundings

of the Hilton Taba.

I wondered about the three years that passed

since I first met Abu Ala in Oslo.

Since then, our lives had become

a combination of promise

and anguish.

The process we started

had withstood tremendous trials.

Since the first day in Oslo,

and up until this current exchange in May '96,

1,100 days of peace talks had passed.

When we said our farewells that day,

I never imagined that it would be my last

and final meeting with Abu Ala in my official role

as head of the Israeli negotiating team.

If I had known it was all going to end,

maybe I would have come up

with something more intelligent to say to him.

But all I said to Abu Ala was,

see you soon, my friend.

Newsman: Nearly 80 percent of Israel's four million voters

streamed to polling stations.

Everyone seemed to understand

why this election was important.

In suburban Tel Aviv, voters chose Peres.

The peace process means hope,

so that he won't be

in a bloody army or in a bloody war.

Newsman: In the West Bank city of Hebron,

Jewish settlers voted for Netanyahu.

Peres want to be,

to give our land to the Arabs, so, of course,

we are voting for Benjamin Netanyahu.

Newsman: Tonight, those who support

the steps Israel has taken toward peace

are clinging to the hope

that they may be the ultimate winners.

♪ ♪

(speaking Hebrew)

(crowd cheering)

(newsman speaking Hebrew)

(singing in Hebrew)

Singer: It's like someone building a bridge,

and building and building and building

something that could have really

changed...

the Middle East.

An opportunity like this comes

once in a hundred years,

and it was wasted.

I felt so bad

when it all collapsed

because I held it already,

and I felt,

we can do it! We can do it!

And then... (sputters)

It went wrong,

and I knew,

it's not in my lifetime.

Probably not in my kids' lifetime.

Maybe the grandchildren.

(cheering)

(cheering in Hebrew)

(cheering, applauding)

(speaking Hebrew)

(cheering)

♪ ♪

(singing in Arabic)

Interviewer: Are you still an optimist?

Do you still believe there's a chance for peace

between us and the Palestinians?

I don't think there's another alternative.

Neither for the Palestinians, nor for us.

The only alternative is an ongoing war.

But contrary what people think,

in war, there are no victories.

Only victims.

No war is ever finished,

unless it's being replaced by peace.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪