Three major media outlets tried last week to arrange a live debate between me and Oslo architect Yossi Beilin. Interestingly, their choice of representatives demonstrates that they have all reached the same conclusion. The main figure who propelled the Oslo Accords forward and is still in the public eye today is Yossi Beilin, and the main figure who struggled to stop the Accords is yours truly.
All three attempts to arrange the debate went as follows:
“Hello, this is Channel…”
“Shalom.”
“We are arranging a discussion on the topic of 25 years to Oslo. Would you be willing to participate in the discussion opposite Dr. Yossi Beilin?”
“Yes.”
In all three instances, we set a date and a place. Everything was arranged – and canceled at the last minute. At a certain point I understood that Beilin simply was refusing to appear opposite me.
He’s smart. It is not that I am a better polemicist or rhetorician him. It’s simply that the situation is approximately akin to bringing the drunken driver who ran over a child to debate the person who tried his best to keep him off the road. What does Beilin need that for?
Last week, I was interviewed on the radio immediately following Yossi Beilin. The following are translated excerpts from that conversation.
After all these years, we are still talking about dividing the land. What is your solution?
Their goal was never peace. The architect of the Oslo Accords, Dr. Ron Pundak, explicitly admitted that in April 2014. He said the entire purpose of the Oslo Accords was to make Israel a state of all its citizens instead of a Jewish state.
Dr. Yossi Beilin is telling us how wonderful things are today in Judea and Samaria. He forgot to say that since Oslo, six times as many people have been murdered here, 20 times as many have been wounded, and the Accords cost us 1.2 trillion shekels.
The Negev is burning, Tel Aviv is in Hezbollah missile range, our entire country is on its knees before a terror organization, and all of that is in the merit of the wonderful Oslo Accords.
We wanted to ask you how you see the U.S. government’s decision to cut 200 million dollars in aid to the Palestinians.
What is happening with Trump is amazing. Just as the U.S. president forced the transfer of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem upon Netanyahu him against his will, now he is forcing him to end the Arab refugee status.
I don’t understand why Netanyahu doesn’t want it.
Israel’s government has no strategy. Israel’s Right has never had any strategy. And so Netanyahu does not want any change. Finally, an American president is looking at reality the way it is, and solving the problem.
Now let us look at what is happening in Gaza. After World War II and Israel’s War of Independence, there were 50 million refugees in the world. The only refugees left of all those millions of refugees are the so-called Palestinian refugees.
How do you explain that?
It’s simple. The world, particularly the “Israel-loving” Europeans, decided to perpetuate their refugee status and allow them to bequeath this status from one generation to the next. There is no other example of this in the world. To this end, a special agency for Palestinian refugees, called UNRWA, was formed. Now the U.S. president has come and said, “This is the end of the story. You are not refugees.”
So where are you going to send them?
Over the recent month of Ramadan, Egypt opened the Rafah Crossing with Gaza for a few hours, and look what happened. Tons of people left Gaza for Europe via Alexandria. The EU must accept them because they have refugee status. That happened in the space of a few hours. What is amazing is that the solution Zehut has been talking about for years is happening without us.
What is the solution?
Reality is going to triumph. The Venezuelan solution will triumph. There is going to be hunger in Gaza because they live from U.S. aid. As soon as the crossing will be opened, they will leave and all will be well.