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00:08The Israelis came 1,500 miles, scored a direct hit on the PLO headquarters based in Tunis,
00:15and only just missed the PLO leader, Yasser Arafat.
00:19It was a revenge raid by the Israelis following last week's attack on an Israeli yacht in Cyprus.
00:26Three people were killed by a PLO unit from Tunisia.
00:30As a matter of principle, it's our view that it is legitimate self-defense to respond appropriately to acts of
00:36terrorism.
00:43As terrorist warfare continued, a plane load of Israelis arrived at Heathrow Airport.
00:49The passengers had no idea that among them was their foreign minister on a top-secret mission.
00:58I came disguised in a wig and glasses.
01:02When I got to passport control, he asked,
01:06On holiday or business?
01:09I didn't know what to say.
01:11Finally, I said, On business.
01:21Shimon Peres wanted to extend the peace with Egypt to Jordan and the Palestinians.
01:32That same day, King Hussein of Jordan piloted his own plane to London.
01:37He had been invited to meet Peres by a mutual friend.
01:41I had many questions in my mind about it.
01:44But he didn't give me any detail.
01:45He just told me that he had contacts with Peres, which were a beginning of talk about what could be
01:55done.
01:58The British lawyer, Lord Mishkan, had provided the meeting place and given his staff the day off.
02:06King Hussein said, We'll wash up the dishes.
02:10I immediately agreed.
02:12But Mrs. Mishkan said no.
02:14She wouldn't dream of letting a king do her dishes.
02:21They now settled down to work out how to begin the process of negotiations.
02:27Israel still didn't want to negotiate with the PLO, which it saw as a terrorist organization dedicated to its destruction.
02:35We discussed the impasse.
02:38The problem was how to get the Palestinians to the negotiating table.
02:43Against Israeli opposition, against American opposition.
02:47Hussein said, If you were clever, you would recognize the PLO.
02:52That would show everyone the truth.
02:55The PLO is just unwilling to negotiate.
03:00Israel was willing to negotiate only with those Palestinians recognizing the right of Israel to exist.
03:08Peace talks with Palestinians who accepted Israel's right to exist would exclude the PLO.
03:16It's a little bit of time to think about it and at the same time to...
03:24to see if I had any last thoughts before such a monumental decision was taken.
03:32And then I decided, All right, fine, we'll go.
03:36The idea they came up with was a peace conference that excluded the PLO.
03:44Back in Israel, Shimon Peres faced a difficult meeting with his prime minister, Yitzhak Shamir.
03:52Peres' moderate labor party was part of a coalition that straddled the divide of Israeli politics.
04:00Shimon Peres, a hardliner, and the peace conference.
04:02Shimon Peres, a hardliner, opposed the conference.
04:03Shimon Peres, a hardliner, opposed the conference.
04:04He wanted to negotiate separately with each Arab country and didn't want to deal with the Palestinians at all.
04:14He said he'd agreed with King Hossein to hold an international conference.
04:25An international conference?
04:29For me, that would be as bad as a pig in the temple.
04:36Shamir mistrusted Peres.
04:37He feared Israel would be outnumbered by the Arab states at the conference.
04:42Peres assured him the conference would quickly adjourn into individual talks with each Arab state,
04:47and the PLO would not be invited.
04:51I said, Leave the text. I'll read it later.
04:56I said, No, I can't leave the agreement.
05:01Your staff might leak it and spoil my plan.
05:05It has to look like it comes from the Americans.
05:10I said, We'll get to the court.
05:10Peres and King Hossein agreed that only America had the clout to get everyone to attend.
05:15So Peres then contacted the American Secretary of State.
05:21what he proposed now was that i take this on board as my proposal and then present it
05:32to the israeli government i saw a danger even in a visit from schultz
05:42i decided to send an envoy to america i sent our former ambassador and i told schultz very plainly
05:54that the president subject of the international conference was a subject of divided opinion in
06:00israel mainly between the liquid and the labor party and that if he were to come at israel to
06:06provide his support for the agreement that paris had arrived at he would be entering israeli
06:13domestic politics and he said i'm not going to make the joke trying to keep the process going
06:19paris persuaded shamir to meet with jordan's king hussein the king invited shamir to his house in
06:29london hussein explained that he could represent the palestinians
06:37the king was very critical of the americans he said they made promises they didn't honor
06:46they promised jordan would get back the land israel had occupied but this hasn't happened
06:54i thought to myself i'm responsible for that he was very blunt
07:06there was not very much room for for putting any of the ideas or hopes or aspirations that i had
07:14in mind
07:15i refused point blank to discuss an international conference so there wasn't much that we could
07:24really speak about or agree about the next morning i flew back to jerusalem
07:34none of my colleagues knew where i'd been or who i'd been meeting
07:42we got a report from that meeting from shamir who was very happy about it the king was so courteous
07:51he
07:51served a kosher meal he was listened to me and we had it was warm and so on we got
08:02a report from king
08:03hussein who said well we had the meeting and it was terribly discouraging because it's obvious to me
08:11that the prime minister is not willing to give any ground at all
08:20shamir rejected hussein as a representative of the palestinians and repeated his unwillingness to
08:25to negotiate with the plo meanwhile the palestinians squeezed into the gaza strip for the last 20 years
08:40under israeli rule grew increasingly frustrated
08:56on december 8th 1987 an israeli truck accidentally hit a car carrying four palestinian laborers
09:10all the people in the car were killed we thought this was no accident it was done on purpose by
09:19the israelis
09:23angry crowds soon gathered an 18 year old palestinian threw a stone at some israeli soldiers
09:31when they fired back the boy was killed
09:45the israeli security forces then stepped up their presence in the occupied territories
09:58a group of young activists seized the opportunity to prepare a leaflet calling for an uprising
10:05of the israeli
10:09early in the morning our leaflet was ready we had cars standing by we asked children and pregnant women
10:18to help they could slip past the israelis at the checkpoint
10:26palestinian workers were urged to go on strike shopkeepers were told to shut their businesses
10:37the intifada had begun
10:40and they were told to go on
10:53yasser arafat and the plo leadership
10:56still an exile in tunis learned about the intifada from a newscast
11:01it is a resistance and the revolution of all our children or our women or our people or our men
11:18in fact we didn't know who issued the leaflets we were worried we wanted to know who was behind all
11:25this
11:27from the other end of the mediterranean the plo could provide little day-to-day guidance to the intifada
11:33organizers the demonstrations which began in gaza now spread to east jerusalem and the west bank
11:44the palestinian flag an illegal symbol under israeli rule began to appear all over the occupied territories
11:54now even the bourgeoisie everyone joined the intifada this really encouraged us
12:02to keep the intifada going one young activist sought guidance from faisal husseini
12:08the head of one of the oldest palestinian families
12:12husseini had spent the last few years in and out of israeli jails for his political activities
12:20i told him the intifada must not change tactics
12:26don't use weapons or guns don't give the israelis an excuse to use their technology
12:34we want to tie down as many soldiers as we can
12:45the strategy of minimum force caught the israelis off guard
13:18the israelis tried to break the morale of the protesters with mass arrests
13:25they blew up the homes of convicted terrorists it is not a nice picture to witness
13:33blowing the house i forced myself to be with the soldiers understanding that they feel as i feel
13:44when the israeli cabinet met members of the coalition argued about how best to end the intifada
13:56ariel sharon spoke up in essence he said mr prime minister
14:03we must order the army to suppress the intifada
14:08the army will find a way
14:13some of the ministers made horrifying suggestions
14:18they suggested send in the tanks kill a thousand and it will collapse order will be restored to israel
14:28we knew if we killed a thousand it would get worse and we would be branded war criminals
14:41the cabinet rejected all of this the cabinet rejected all of this but told the defense minister
14:45itzhak rabin to find a way to end the intifada
14:49itzhak rabin stood in front of the soldiers and said gentlemen don't just stand there
14:59use your hands use your clubs beat the demonstrators restore order
15:10trying to restore order without shooting the demonstrators rabin told his soldiers to club them instead
15:25scenes like this were broadcast around the world
15:28they are facing the punishment of the israelis by their hands by their stones not more till now
15:35in all over the occupied territories in every town and village or refugee camp in all the demonstrations
15:41no one had used a gun or a hand grenade abu jihad the plo's military leader in tunis
15:49had gained control of the intifada he also directed the plo's terrorist operations
15:56in the middle of the intifada abu jihad ordered an attack on an israeli bus carrying people home from
16:03work three were killed and six wounded all were in a state of shock those women who had been on
16:12the bus
16:12and have got away had not escaped the emotional trauma
16:20a month later an elite israeli commando unit landed on a beach in tunis
16:27mossad agents guided the commandos to the home of abu jihad
16:34i was woken by the sound of people breaking into the house then i heard screams
16:41i was terrified i heard abu jihad moving running from the desk to the cupboard where he took his pistol
16:56i saw three masked men with machine guns
17:03one of the men opened fire on abu jihad one of the men opened fire on abu jihad
17:08they shot him in his arm
17:12and his heart
17:22abu jihad was a leader of the intifada
17:29although he was out of the country he was fighting against us
17:35he was one of their most popular commanders
17:40he fell just like many others like people on our side
17:50but in the intensity of the conflict both sides were learning something about each other
18:05for the 40th anniversary of israel we had a huge military parade
18:23a few days later i was in the west bank
18:27i came across a group of young palestinians
18:31they knew me from tv
18:38and one of them said yesterday i saw all your fighter aircraft
18:43you're so strong up there
18:47but what can you do against stone throwers down here
18:52this was our problem and the young people's power
19:04you know that if you beat them and shoot them and do whatever you want to them they won't stop
19:11we train
19:14to fight against the other soldiers and now we fight against the people
19:20it's difficult
19:25increasingly israelis asked themselves whether they could rule more than a million palestinians in the
19:29occupied territories forever
19:37we can't solve this problem it's the government it's the police it's the politicians have to solve the problem not
19:44we are
19:54the intifada vented palestinian frustration but it also demonstrated that
19:59neither terrorism nor street revolt would solve their political problems
20:06in tunis one plo leader discussed what to do next with a colleague
20:11for going to the whole
20:13they just mentioned said no
20:15we sat there alone actually i said i want to talk about something i've never mentioned before
20:24can i raise a taboo subject he said be my guest the plo had been created to reclaim
20:32all of israel for the palestinians now abu mazin suggested that they be realistic
20:39that the only way to get back gaza and the west bank was to accept what they rejected 40 years
20:44ago
20:45the partition of palestine i asked him should we consider recognizing israel he said yes
20:58yasser arafat was eventually convinced that the plo would have to compromise
21:04but the other plo leaders were harder to persuade
21:09like sadat the plo preferred to negotiate through the americans
21:18but the americans laid down a condition yasser arafat the world's most famous guerrilla leader
21:25would have to renounce terrorism
21:32he's got to get up in front of a television camera in some public way and say for everybody
21:37to see him saying it out of his own mouth these things
21:43the un general assembly gathered in geneva for a special session to hear arafat
21:49but not all the factions of the plo were willing to negotiate
21:58we did not accept the decision to recognize israel we would accept no further compromise
22:09arafat's u.n speech would be a difficult balancing act
22:12i hereby once more declare that i condemn terrorism in all its forms
22:24that was for the americans and in a pattern that was to characterize the whole speech the next phrase
22:31was for the plo radicals
22:35and at the same time
22:38salute those sitting before me in this hall
22:43who in the days when they fought to free their countries from the yoke of colonialism
22:50were accused of terrorism
22:59he concluded his speech convinced he had pleased everyone
23:06i reviewed it with president reagan who was following this closely
23:11and i said well mr president one part of his statement he said uncle and the other part of
23:17his statement he said cool cool cool but nowhere did he say uncle so no it's not satisfactory
23:26word soon came that the americans had rejected the balancing act
23:31arafat's closest advisors implored him to say exactly what schultz demanded
23:39i saw that arafat had a dilemma whether to say it or not
23:44should he sit tight or should he try again
23:52the next morning arafat called a press conference i repeat for the record
24:00that we totally and absolutely renounce all forms of terrorism
24:09i view this development as one more step
24:11israel's agreement toward the beginning of direct negotiations between the parties
24:16which alone can lead to such a peace
24:19but israel's prime minister was unimpressed
24:24shamir made a gesture
24:27it meant this isn't important
24:29let's not waste time analyzing what arafat said
24:34we cannot trust
24:35they are criminals they are liars they are enemies of our people
24:46shamir's view of arafat was reinforced 18 months later
24:56on august 2nd 1990 iraq's saddam hussein sent his army into kuwait
25:03he boasted that in a war israel would end up in flames
25:10saddam's only support came from libya sudan and the plo
25:29israel israel prepared for an attack
25:34as president bush set out to build a coalition to force saddam out of kuwait
25:38he traveled to damascus to bring syria into the fold
25:48but president assad a firm arab nationalist was not easy to convince
25:55president assad made very clear to me that he blamed israel for everything
26:01i'm not sure he blamed it blamed him for iraq going into kuwait but he got almost everything
26:06everything was all about israel i made clear to him that we didn't want to link
26:11any middle east peace process talks to whipping saddam hussein but i made clear to him also that
26:19we would be involved in trying to be a catalyst for peace for arabs and israelis
26:39as the war started saddam ordered an attack on israel with scud missiles
26:46saddam hoped that by attacking israel he would get the support of other arab countries
26:51if israel retaliated he might be able to undermine the coalition against him
26:59iraq's missiles were aimed indiscriminately at israel's largest cities
27:04the repeated attacks over many nights were nerve-wracking
27:12the israeli press reported that palestinians celebrated as the missiles flew over the west
27:17bank on the way to tel aviv
27:23chemical traces in one of the missiles even raised the possibility of a deadly chemical attack
27:31and we would like to see that threat removed and we will
27:36take the actions that are necessary to remove it i cannot tell you when i cannot tell you where
27:43in the end israel did not retaliate but its leaders had learned a hard lesson about their
27:49vulnerability
27:51shamir was also absolutely convinced that given the opportunity israel's arab enemies would try to
27:58destroy it
28:04and the war with iraq ended president bush looked towards the future
28:19we must do all that we can to close the gap between israel and the arab states
28:26and between israelis and palestinians there can be no substitute for diplomacy the time has come
28:35to put an end to arab israeli conflict
28:40the idea was the president at the height of his prestige
28:43sending the secretary of the state at the height of his prestige to the middle east and what we
28:48basically hoped was that no one would have the nerve to say no to the united states at that moment
28:55bush instructed secretary of state james baker to persuade the arabs and israelis to attend a new peace conference
29:07well the whole idea that that we came up with was to give the arabs what they needed and give
29:14the israelis what they needed
29:16the bone of contention between israel and syria was still the golan heights
29:28in damascus baker suggested to president assad that if he came to the conference israel might
29:36negotiate a withdrawal from the golan heights
29:42we are not negotiating whether the golan would come back or not whether part of it would stay
29:48and the israeli control or not the whole of the syrian golan should come back to syria
29:56having gotten nowhere with the syrians baker then tried to tempt yitzhak shamir to the peace conference
30:03i remember saying it's going to be one big meeting that is going to lead then to bilateral negotiations
30:09so that the israeli government could say well this is really not an international conference
30:14i wouldn't even consider it it meant negotiating with plo terrorists
30:25baker promised shamir he would not invite the plo to the conference
30:31baker then went to meet palestinian leaders from the west bank and gaza
30:35we in the plo leadership opposed them meeting baker for us this meeting was pointless we thought it
30:47would not advance the palestinian cause
30:53some comrades argued that the americans wanted to create an alternative leadership to replace the plo
31:04for five nights abu mazin urged the plo leadership to let palestinians from the occupied territories meet with baker
31:14finally yasser arafat decided he had nothing to lose
31:26if things would proceed positively then the leadership would take the credit if things did not
31:33work out then we as individuals would take the blame
31:40when the palestinians met baker in jerusalem
31:43the plo insisted that each palestinian delegate be approved in writing by arafat
31:54i said to him mr secretary this meeting could not have taken place without the authorization of
32:01president alpha personally and i took the letter out of my pocket showed it to him i reminded them
32:07that the plo their their organization and their chairman had made a serious mistake in backing saddam hussein in the
32:15gulf war
32:20he sat like this
32:23i pulled my chair around and faced him
32:28we confronted each other just like two fighting cops
32:38he was so angry and if you make you angry what can you do we don't have assets in bank
32:44to be frozen by
32:45you we don't have airlines to be grounded by you we don't have anything in the world that you can
32:51threaten us with so court us and we're willing to play positively but as a major player the palestinians
33:00refused to repudiate the plo and baker knew this would be unacceptable to shamir
33:08after 12 weeks of shuttle diplomacy baker was stuck
33:14the only leverage a secretary of state has in in this kind of situation is the ability
33:23to blame one party or the other for the collapse of the peace process
33:27of the peace process baker came and told president assad it is your position is very important
33:35i mean if you accept if you feel that this is good for you and you accept the american initiative
33:44then the whole world will stand by syria and will put the blame on israel
33:50assad decided to go along
33:55i'm pleased to report that syria has agreed to the proposals that we have made
34:02including coming to a peace conference
34:08full of confidence baker returned to israel
34:12there was no way that an israeli prime minister could appear to be less interested
34:17in peace than a syrian president especially when the syrian president accepted coming to this
34:24conference on terms that were essentially defined by israel
34:27but shamir put more obstacles in baker's path
34:31every time the american team arrived in the middle east israel announced the construction of a new jewish
34:37settlement in the occupied territories land the arabs claimed was theirs each new jewish home
34:44made israeli withdrawal more difficult
34:51furious baker went public
34:55it is easier to obstruct peace than it is to promote it and that the uh that the establishment
35:04of these settlements certainly does not help the efforts of those of us who are interested in peace
35:11the palestinian reaction was predictable
35:16i remember faisal husseini at almost every meeting he would pull out this map
35:23i brought him maps of the west bank and gaza
35:29the first map showed the situation before 1967. the second one showed the situation today with the
35:38settlements all marked in orange and i finally said faisal let's get let's talk about what's important
35:48here let's talk about how we're going to uh get a negotiation going because if we don't we're
35:55going to keep meeting like this and pretty soon you're going to bring me a map that's totally orange
36:00he actually told us you have no other alternative he said name any way in which you can stop settlements
36:06other than through the peace process the local palestinians were afraid to talk to the israelis
36:13without permission from the plo in tunis a meeting of the palestine national council was called
36:25our delegation asked baker could the refugees return he said no
36:33will there be a palestinian state he said no
36:40will the plo be on the delegation to speak for us he said no
36:46no chairman arafat knows that these answers are accurate they are no no and no
37:00i told the conference if we don't get on the peace train it will pass through our station
37:09we will never have another chance i said we don't want to be passive victims of history we want to
37:17challenge to intervene to intrude to participate and to present our own narrative to speak for ourselves
37:23and this is a forum it was a forum arafat himself had wanted to attend
37:30reluctantly he agreed that the team from the occupied territories not the plo would represent the
37:36palestinians
37:41but shamir had another demand he asked the americans to guarantee a loan of 10 billion dollars
37:48to help absorb the soviet immigrants who were now pouring into israel
37:57i don't want to interfere in the american interior affair
38:00but i would like to inform everybody that not to forget that they are using these billions
38:15in building more illegal settlements on our land
38:23so this was our way to build up our country what is the zionist ideal it is to gather the
38:33jewish people
38:33into this small country so we must set up more and more homes large and small communities
38:42what are the settlements they are just communities no arabs lived on that land it is not on their property
38:54the americans were unable to stop the israelis from building settlements
38:59to save the conference president bush delayed the loan american jewish leaders urged him to reconsider
39:10i was approached by the leaders of some of the the biggest jewish organizations a republican
39:17was head of apac which is a very strong american israel political action committee
39:23and he told me that i was making a huge mistake politically president bush wouldn't give in
39:32for the first time in history the vision
39:35of israelis sitting with their arab neighbors to talk peace is a real prospect nothing should be done
39:43that might interfere with this prospect and if necessary i will use my veto power
39:52we saw the president on television
39:54the president on television he took a stand against the american jews i got really angry
40:06this hurt me just as it hurt many others
40:18bush had faced down shamir
40:22a few weeks later israelis arabs americans and russians assembled in madrid
40:33for the first time palestinians were invited to participate
40:40today we have made a major step forward there is a recognition of the palestinian national
40:47identity the palestinians are speaking out for themselves for the first time in history
40:53the delegates gathered at the royal palace
40:56the first time in the united states and the first time in the united states
41:00i will never forget the emotion i felt when with gorbachev next to me we walked into this room in
41:10madrid
41:11and there across the table sat arabs and israelis
41:19we come to madrid on a mission of hope
41:22to begin everyone expected each middle east delegation to be led by its foreign minister
41:28to the conflict but shamir had a better idea
41:31i thought maybe i should go to madrid myself
41:38shamir had devoted his life to fighting for israel
41:41doing whatever he thought necessary to establish maintain and defend the state
41:47as he got up to speak the conference waited to hear if he was now ready to make peace
41:54i could go on and recite a litany of facts that demonstrate the extent to which syria merits
42:02the dubious honor of being one of the most oppressive tyrannical regimes in the world
42:11but this is not what we have come here for he attacked syria bitterly and accused syria of being on
42:18the list of
42:22terrorism and i was very angry i looked over and i saw farooq shara's face he just froze
42:31and he called one of his aides over
42:39so immediately his face changed and he smiled he said okay go back i will write my speech
42:50i told him mr minister it is 15 minutes left yesterday we spent seven hours to prepare your speech
42:57speech he said don't worry i will write headlines so i lay aside my prepared speech and said openly
43:08he is the last one to have the right to speak about terrorism because he himself was a wanted terrorist
43:15where you come i shall just show you surah surah if i may a photograph an old
43:23photograph of mr shamir why was this picture distributed it was distributed wanted because
43:32he was wanted he helped in the assassination of count bernadotte the me the me the u.n mediator
43:39in palestine as i recall in 1948 he killed peace mediators i remember the faces of the israeli delegation
43:49and they were they were colorless one palestinian delegate then tried to demonstrate that no matter
44:07what shamir thought he was really negotiating with the plo so i said the only thing that symbolizes
44:15palestinians is the black and white coffee which president arafat wears all the time so i decided to
44:21put it in my shoulder and the angle of my seat came directly looking shamir on the eye it was
44:30engineered by god it was just perfect and i looked at him and i said to another in my head
44:37he said
44:39he shook his head like this i smiled really he was this way so i winked to him and then
44:51after the session
44:54was over everyone is surrounding me so i said why the sensitivities we are the key to peace to your
45:02peace
45:02process as palestinians and you must realize the new facts of life amid mutual recriminations the
45:10conference broke into one-to-one talks between israel and the arab states we and the syrians moved to
45:19opposite sides of this big table we sat frozen like robots the americans and russians got out as
45:28quickly as they could they were glad to escape it was difficult half an hour for me for example
45:41this will be the first time i sit face to face with the israelis the syrians wanted us to commit
45:52to a
45:53withdrawal from the golan heights we didn't want to get into all that the withdrawal should not be a
46:04question for negotiation the withdrawal is either there would be a withdrawal full withdrawal or there
46:11would be no peace the moment we would have said that we were ready to withdraw this might have ended
46:19the whole thing and the syrians would have avoided the main question for us that was the character of
46:26peace the end of terrorism the terrorist organizations with their headquarters in damascus and what about
46:35hezbollah and lebanon under syrian occupation all these topics were raised and every time we tried to break
46:43this dogma of the syrians when they finished the israelis returned to their hotel telling the waiting
46:53press that all their suggestions to try to build trust had been flatly rejected there had been no
46:59handshakes no smiles little personal contact i don't want to say that they were a complete failure because
47:05the very fact that we were sitting and talking is in itself already an achievement but the substance was
47:11as i said futile the syrians too were unimpressed by their meeting i would like to express our regret
47:19for leaving
47:23this city madrid without having tangible results from the bilateral talks that our
47:33delegation held yesterday with the israeli delegation
47:37israeli talks with the palestinian and jordanian delegation was so positive
47:42that they could be crowned with public handshakes afterwards both sides here at least confident of
47:47meeting again soon america had finally brought the warring parties to the conference table
47:53the conference table but it would take another breakthrough to convert fighters into peacemakers
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