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RUTH WISSE:
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The road to hell

I would much rather praise Israel's noble achievements than talk about its mistakes, but, alas, no one can shield the Israelis from the consequences of the Oslo Accords.

When Israel recognized the world's then-leading terrorist as the legitimate leader of the Palestinian people and pledged to arm his "police force" to prevent further attacks upon its citizens, it became the first country ever to arm its professed enemy with the expectation of gaining security. That Yitzhak Rabin thought such an action was "reversible" if it didn't work, only magnifies the folly of his government's actions.

Many Israelis assure me that by now "everyone" recognizes the error of Oslo. Yet those who express their disappointment in Yasser Arafat usually frame this admission in a glow of innocence, as though they expected to be praised for having paved their road to hell with good intentions. They proudly recount how much they were prepared to risk for peace, as if a gambler should be congratulated rather than treated for his desperation.

They boast that at Camp David, in the summer of 2000, Ehud Barak promised Arafat everything that he had wanted even though none of the obligations of Oslo had been fulfilled! These Israelis want to show off their readiness for compromise and accommodation, as if stupidity should be rewarded for being imprudent.

Consider the immaturity of this approach. Does a general expect to be rewarded for leading his troops into the enemy's trap? Does a CEO claim a bonus for having lost the controlling share of his company in negotiations with a cannier rival? Would physicians count on public approbation for handing out scalpels to a killer?

Arafat and the PLO made monkeys of those who negotiated the Oslo charade; they scored the first real Arab victory against Israel since 1948. Unless Israelis face up to the enormity of this debacle, they are likely to keep swallowing the same hook, line and sinker.

In a country where commissions of inquiry are routinely struck to investigate failures of omission as well as commission, no independent inquiry has yet been launched to identify the origins and the process of Oslo. I have a feeling that this is because so many Israelis still do not recognize that an unmonitored agreement with a professional terrorist had to result in increased violence against them.

The writer is Martin Peretz professor of Yiddish literature at Harvard University.