Disengagement ° humanity ° peace _Anthony L. Fisher

 Yitzak Rabin 'Peace talks' and

Ariel Sharon 'Disengagement' 

f you look at the Clinton White House photographer's pictures right before the historic Rabin/Arafat handshake, you see the expression on Rabin's face. He looks at Arafat and Bill Clinton in the middle, and his face says, "What am I doing here? Who is this guy? What the hell is going on?"

Then a year and a half later, Rabin and Arafat meet. And there's the beautiful scene in the film where they have to decide whether the Palestinians will have a police station in the Oslo II Accord.

Arafat says, "Whatever is acceptable to the prime minister." And Rabin says they will have a police station. You see their two faces, and you see the change between the handshake and this moment later. That's the whole story in a little capsule.

Masked Palestinian members of the Islamist Hamas movement march during a demonstration in Gaza Strip. Abid Katib/Getty Images

[... a few years on] You just talked about Netanyahu and Hamas having a sort of symbiotic relationship. Going back to "The Gatekeepers," there's a section where the Israeli right turns against the Oslo Accords - which established the Palestinian Authority as a legitimate government entity that recognized Israel's right to exist.

There were young kids and their fathers in the street chanting, "With blood and fire we will throw Rabin out."   ...

We've been with the same politician as prime minister (Netanyahu) for 12 years. His impact on the [political] reality is huge. He's negotiating and working with Hamas and downgrading and humiliating the Palestinian Authority. Benjamin Netanyahu is much better working with Hamas than with someone who says they're for peace.

....

One thing I'm hoping people get out of this movie is the importance of the human factor. I'm currently doing a huge project about American politics encountering genocide, part of a series for American audiences, and for all over the world. And the importance of the human factor inside the decision-making room is stunning.

...   Early in "The Human Factor," there's a segment about former Secretary of State James Baker, who was perhaps the quintessential Reagan/Bush White House Republican.

It's almost unthinkable in our current political climate, but he was a fairly successful diplomat because he supported Israel, while also vocally criticizing the Israeli government. He would not just rubber-stamp every Israeli demand. And he was insistent that the Israelis meet the Palestinians on a level playing field, at least for the negotiations.

Across the board with all of the negotiators that worked with James Baker, they'll say if he had stayed on as US secretary of state, there would definitely be at least one peace agreement signed. [Baker left government when President George HW Bush lost reelection in 1992.]

[... lost re-election in 1992.]

That's because he was an effective mediator. Baker knew how to use the tools of diplomacy and the status of America as the global superpower to force people who were reluctant to move forward, and to bring them together to create something which was not there before. All of that changed when he left office.

When President Clinton took office, he appointed Warren Christopher as secretary of state. He had a completely different approach. He was much more hands off.

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/netanyahu-owes-career-hamas-human-120400733.html

'Netanyahu owes his career to Hamas' - 'The Human Factor' director Dror Moreh talks about the rise and fall of the Israel and Palestine peace process