The Israeli State Archives allowed the publication of Yitzhak Rabin's government meeting minutes, at which the Oslo Accords were approved.
Haim Ramon, the Health Minister back then, stated that Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu caused the termination of the agreement and the outbreak of the Second Intifada.
Ramon said that the protocol clearly shows that Barak, then Chief of Staff of the Army, opposed the Oslo Accords from the beginning.
When he later became Minister of the Interior, Barak voted against the second part of the agreements and then announced in 1999 that there was no Palestinian partner for a peace process after the Camp David meetings.
Netanyahu declared that Israel can and will stop the Oslo process.
Later, in 1996, when he was elected prime minister, he abolished what remained of the Oslo agreement.
Ramon stressed that if Rabin had not been assassinated in 1995 and Israel had proceeded with his method, the second Intifada may not have erupted, and the Oslo agreement might have been successful.
Several other Israeli politicians who were ministers at that time echoed Ramon's assessment and agreed that Oslo was an adventure for Israel, but it also carried a historic missed opportunity.
Notably, the government session that approved these agreements was held on August 30, 1993, during a session headed by Rabin.
The 80-page transcript of that session remained "top secret" throughout this period. Publication of certain parts of the transcript remains forbidden for reasons of state security and may not take place for another 20 to 60 years.
- Fears of weapons
The declassified minutes reveal that of the 18 cabinet ministers at the time, 16 approved the Oslo Accords, and two abstained: Aryeh Deri and Shimon Sheetrit.
Deri and Sheetrit confirmed that they were negatively affected by the security doubts of Rabin, Barak, and even Shimon Peres, who feared weapons delivered to the Palestinian security apparatus and Hamas operations.
At the beginning of the session, Rabin said: "I want to start by saying this is not an easy agreement. Obviously, had we negotiated with ourselves, I'm sure the wording would have been far better. The text also includes unpleasant wording."
He stressed: "We must look much more comprehensively at all the different components."
Former Housing Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer said that defeating Hamas is possible if the King of Jordan did, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) will be able to do the same.
- Police for Arafat, the weapons for Hamas
Peres echoed Ben Eliezer, pointing out an "explicit commitment with the signing of the Declaration of Principles, according to which [PLO leader Yasser] Arafat will announce the cessation of terrorism."
He said, "I think so too, so give him weapons and the police. Look at the absurd situation we're in: You take the police from the PLO while leaving weapons with Hamas... Let's imagine that Asaf Yalim [head of Hamas] disappears; who will we talk to? Who are we going to negotiate with?"
Peres then asserts that the evacuation of settlements must be avoided.
"It is agreed that the settlements will remain as they are, even in the Gaza Strip (...) no settlement will be destroyed," he said.
At this moment, Army Chief of Staff Barak intervenes in the conversation: "From the first reading of the agreements in principle, I see very serious problems in the implementation of the security component, both in the Gaza and Jericho phase and in the more distant phase."
Barak continued, "In the text, the goodwill and effectiveness of the Palestinian police are merely hypotheses (...) As regards the [internal security agency] that the Palestinians will establish, the agreements envisage minimal cooperation with it."
He indicated that the agreements also foresee that "extremist elements" among the Palestinians will try to torpedo the deal.
Rabin concluded the meeting by saying: "The problems will be hard, and I must say, any form of autonomy will be more difficult than today. Because today, you have total control, while you have a partnership when there's autonomy. The test will be the partnership. I don't suggest covering this up."
He added that it was necessary to establish a partnership with the Palestinians, while it is uncertain how they will act in control.
Peres signed the Oslo Accords two weeks after this session with the current Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on September 13, 1993, in the White House garden, in the presence of Rabin and Arafat, and under the auspices of US President Bill Clinton, who pushed both of them to the famous historic handshake.
