Hard to find an opening to my story. The tale of a small footnote in the history of our region. I can only write my own private memories of these 3 years of hope and anguish. Is this a tale of triumph. Or defeat. The ending to our story has not yet been written. Was. The petunia ducks begin 40 days after the mexico and had left me the for a few days before morning was a full hour and when theyre up and you see blood on the streets and people are saying this is the peace that you promised us and you could not say dont forget it was only at the o p. Wasnt there a ceremony we are of in a row being held clean wasnt going to be. 1. 1 in march 94 we headed back to the negotiating table since the wave of suicide bombings israel had closed the border to 2 and a half 1000000 palestinians poverty was rising throughout the occupied territories and Living Conditions declining our people were losing faith in the Peace Process but i knew we must not give up. His will to other services to each other. Hes also seen about a 6 year could go in the future of slieve fact for the common its arrangements or whatever but yeah its going to sort of. Go in now the trick of negotiating with the palestinians is not to address the main aspects of the prominent to enjoy. If we try to deal with a permanent arrangement now the whole thing will fall upon you dont want to go back to the cradle of that if you dont think. It will set off without me despite the blood and the violence the process had a force of its own and in may 94. 00 when we set out to sign the gaza jericho agreement granting the palestinian self rule in gaza city a song that uses. Months of talks but stage was finally stepped egypt president mubarak provided a suitably dramatic setting for the ceremony in cairo. The morning of the signing of the gaza jericho agreement faisal and i were being interviewed in jerusalem while watching on my broadcast of the ceremony. On my way to the interview i was held up by Israeli Soldiers at the checkpoints someone said to me this is your idea of peace tell the old man not to sign tell him to come wait at the checkpoint and sign it here along with the rest of us. I stared at the screen and wondered is this a celebration of the birth of the Peace Process or its burial. Both sides appear to have sorted out differences over the gaza strip and jericho over the minutes it was clear that the deal like the stage positions was not going to plan agent signing because the day goes well for a living. Im sitting there and i see a 5 signing the documents signing the book signing a document all the documents and then the guy who took the system brought the maps he looked at them. Didnt sign close the and went back to spare and of being in the woods watching movies. So i walk up the stairs. And i stand next to a beam and as he begins to sign i open it and then i whisper in his ear without show trying not to show any excitement op because everything was recalled and and phil and i told him out of the north. America. So he says so what does he mean. I responded it means that there is no agreement. Israels Prime Minister. Examines the documents. Foreign minister shimon peres and also refused to sign. For a while it seemed as if the entire ceremony was about to collapse. Because we had not been a part of that channel we didnt fully appreciate what the gaps were between the 2 sides israel saw this as a devolution of power as a pal seems prove themselves how soon saw this says we have to show this is a new day and as a new day we have to have all the trappings of state even if we dont have a formal yet so immediately they want to you know they didnt want controls over cross he wants they want to they want to immediately say you know the israelis are out of our lives. Would have been thought of if you know the negotiations is says that. He says no no no. I was downs. They wanted us. So i would go to them and says no they would quote about and to stop it. Said publicly was a mistake. The son of a bitch. After a brief interval the p. L. O. Leader was assured that the size of the jericho region was still under negotiation he signed the document and did a few comments finally with the briefest of handshakes and deal was done at the very last minute. On july 1st 1904 Yasser Arafat returned to his home and reclaimed his position as the palestinian leader. It was an ambivalent return he came back and had to govern palestine which was divided and driven apart. Or perhaps israel brought him back in order to control him. What was the price we had to pay for his return home was this 1. 00 of mine fields or was it the 1st step toward peace and the liberation of palestine. As we made our way to problems time my heart monitor and i was choked with the emotion of the moment. I wept tears i never went before to sing and hugging all my relatives and friends. The last time i met my father in jordan i hinted that i might be coming home so he cried and raised his hands swearing he would prepare a feast on my return. With my sadness was that my father had passed away just 4 months earlier after waiting for my return for so many years. So when i called yuri i said im finally back in my childhood home. Greeted me with the arab order of welcome and told me he was really pleased to hear my voice we had become neighbors and asked. One week after our laws returned to our bodies we met once again in taba this time in order to negotiate the 2nd stage of the all slow process israels withdrawal from the west bank. By spread out the map we had kept secret until then. The oslo accord stated israel will withdraw from most of the west bank within a year and the palestinians were expecting to receive control over the land immediately. But israel demanded a gradual withdrawal and offered the palestinians full control of only 2 percent of the land. The remaining 98 percent would be controlled by the israeli army. Arafat stared at the map silently and then announced about it was an unbearable humiliation these are prison camps he yelled you want to destroy me with those words arafat left the room. What you were suggesting deviates from the signed agreement i shouted you keep 98 percent of the land we wont accept that you can enforce this approach on arafat and push him into a corner. But remember this a one sided agreement will not last. Last it up without saying another word and summoned his driver. We exchanged a polite and cold handshake and we each went our separate ways. As hours went by we waited nervously in the hotels lobby some israeli reporters informed us that arafat had issued a statement about the talks collapsing. We were all on edge but refused to cave in. A sound that we also lost now is the time to decide do they want agreement or not and 2 main issues are on the table hebron and withdrawal maps are out of so i believe well know in hours or in the days but where the end of the negotiation at this stage of the final decision. Later that evening arafats personal assistant came rushing towards me arafat asked that you come to our room immediately she said hes collapsed. I went to our laws room and found him lying in bed pale as a ghost trembling nodding in and out of consciousness. Hold on my friend i whispered i need you to stay with me. The doctors found a collapse to be a result of extreme fatigue caused by the many hours of negotiations but i knew the truth. The map i presented to him had broken his heart. There was something very personal making it wasnt political. Festival it wasnt a political ambition it was a very human race. Theres a symbolic. Picture where people went to israel in packs in the streets and put on their branches. That that acts that this job your lives and your heart was there i mean that can do your kids and the press to people who went out and gave them flowers and gave them olive branches and felt that this was that this is that and oh the conflict this is that and the occupation. It was your moment of 0. Hour and moment of traumas. Back. Peoples hopes were dashed and then my peers i seem to agree and. Saw it as of course im. Sad and responsible. Members. And i want day im driving to my office and the guards tell me a boss was blown up as we drove there and the whole square was awash with blood. And the bodies were still lying there body. People wailing and weeping. And the song failed. To show muster thousands of people were there and when i walked in they saw him murder and see what youve done to us try to see what youve done to us much as it. I had the meeting with yere and ron. We all felt that time was running out and that we had to act fast. We agreed on deliberations that would lead to a permanent agreement utilizing the same framework we used an os low. Quick discreet talks and no empty slogans. Mahmoud abbas and i deliberated over the draft for almost 2 years. Behind the scenes without the wreckage of the taba hotel we touched on the most sensitive points of the process. The for the very 1st time at least theoretically we have a document in our hands with a comprehensive solution the withdrawal to the 67 borders the establishment of a palestinian state of course keeping the settlement blocks intact and making jerusalem the capital of both nations. My plan was to set up a meeting with rabin. I told him that i would like to meet with him about the permanent solution and he said its not possible. So i told him lets do it when i returned from the United States on saturday nov 11th. No one could have guessed under what circumstances that meeting would take place. On september 5th we reassembled in taba i must admit that after our last encounter i wasnt looking forward to another round of this endless boxing match. It was the they asked ts meeting ive ever been in my life we just wanted to be anywhere but in that room as i was leaving the room i turned around and the israeli and palestinian delegations are talking to each other and having a cup of coffee i think it underscores the point that. Part of what happens to negotiations is the humanisation of the other side you no longer see just the quote unquote enemy but you see a person and you learn about that persons family and their ups and downs of their happy moments and you get a sense of how committed they are to peace and you never able to translate that to the public. That evening we improvised a friday Prayer Service we lit candles and much to the astonishment of the palestinians singer recited the kid who should prayer. We opened with everybody love saturday night in 3 languages. Afterwards abu alaa and myself joked around by imitating the peres and arafat conversations meanwhile we taught who was the ass for how to sing my you disha mama. It was nice to get around again. Later that night i received a call from jerusalem a bus had exploded in the center of the capital. Tell the government stop the peace talks. We sat and watched the news silently no one said a word no one doubted that our palestinian friends opposed terror and that it was directed towards them as well. 2 days later called me up from his room and asked me to watch the arab evening news with him. We watched images of a 7 year old boys funeral a boy who had been killed that day by the israeli army. Abu alaa was right when he said that neither side has dominion over suffering. That night to a law and i reached the final draft of the osce low b. Agreement. As the most wanted them of the oslo be accords was signed by early severe on the israeli side and as well enough for the palestinians according to the treaty the israeli army will withdraw from 6 name cities in the west bank besides jericho and elections with the Palestinian Council will take place in the most. You showed us that up today on this is a day of achievement of visits are grubby and this morning he achieved the signing of the oslo be a court of the government debated for 5 hours you know what the minister has described as an historic meeting about in a storage treaty. I dont show do you today with the help of the israeli army we rule over more than 2000000 palestinians there and control daily lives through the Civil Administration all should show there is is no peaceful solution or we can go on fighting. We can continue killing and being killed off the government already or not so bad we can also try to bring a halt to this endless cycle of bloodshed we cant give peace a chance shallow. I dont think al sims have gathered to protest the ratification of the oslo b. Agreement and what the nationalist camp calls the forsaking of security and the abandonment of the whole mess that is still a little too late i ask this huge crowd is there any one amongst you the police yes i dont find that. At that level you say no but there is someone who doesnt care about your painting etc that mr rabin did. I. I. I. Maybe even john when the president of the United States is majesty king hussein of the hashemite kingdom of jordan is excellent Seymour Mahmoud leave a barak president of the arab republic of each other it is actually its a good start for me Prime Minister of israel chairman arafat. Please take your good pablo. There saw you your city was a full symbol goes on a gerbil just to e. U. Sugar. And to our great being a soldier inserted near the one who dared. To make peace moment most of. These where the years of hope when the peace camps felt that they were somehow. Vindicated they are bringing to their people the fruits. And open the same hotel a spontaneous get together of the oslo veterans among them the original negotiators and. It was 1000 you know its a one day off the one. That im and yes yes i am optimistic yes i believe that. The process. Would continue despite of all the difficulties we face but 16 days. We have both we have a good little push disperses far. Away i concur with what i said and we have no choice as some would call it if you can. See also you know the days highlight is the friendly perception of us where personal guards are let down and on the podium gives her phone number to misses out of. This chemistry among the women in the she and he addresses out of foster the 1st time in a personal to human. What the situation spoke. And this story is specious. I. Are still at the believe show but knowing. That you are close to be sure each i was. With. If. I was not one post i. Value and not since if you could all be his eyes and replies oh out of. A lot of causing. I was 3. Was i being late psych rabin and the shimon peres a yossi beilin and to their friends i say to you throughout. The hour. We will rally our forces and we will succeed the absolutely was we will put an end to those threats we will succeed through was because theres no nation is much stronger than its government was. Actually not sure who was who. Rabin and arafat felt isolated in the hostile environment was the peace camp wasnt going out into the streets to protest was instead they chose to avoid confrontation was the peace opponents hamas on the palestinian side and the greater israel camp on our side was now on to Public Opinion was the face off wasnt between israel and the palestinians but between those who supported peace and those who objected to it. Mr of being of why do you like to make the settlers angry as. Much what are they accusing me of not have all forsaking the settlers lives why most people said that the settlements bolster our security where is the security look beautiful. A problem today just fighting the security for settlers. Away but you see the settlers as pioneers show no absolutely not what do you see them as. I see them as people who are implementing their political philosophy they believe in the greater israel. Isnt it these days. Some hill near ramallah bringing 700000 immigrants to israel and absolving building a society and economy of. Another tiny settlement surrounded by hundreds of thousands of palestinians meltdown a few others didnt. In early october John Freedman a friend of peres convinced him to arrange a rally in support of the Peace Process. Peres urged robin to accept the initiative but rabin wondered what people even leave their homes in those days rabin was more pessimistic than ever. If too much is heard in the middle east from the few extremists tonight the supporters of peace and a huge rally in tel aviv this is the young israel tired of army service tired of chasing palestinian stone throwing children through refugee camps all sides are mobilizing but this is now becoming one of the most contentious moments in israeli history for the past 5 perhaps no surprise is fighting and there is a popular momentum for peace. That obama before it was the happiest day of his life and ive known him for 15 years i do never seen him so happy. He has many down there he didnt know if people would show up or call how they behave. And to his pleasant surprise the crowd was enormous and the enthusiasm was incredible. And young men and women jumped into the pool in their clothes and raised him and peace and me to a little. I had known him for 15 years and i never saw him seeing that was the 1st time i ever saw him seeing. Spam from if i was i what we both sang and neither of us so great seeing as the hard go afterwards he hugged me like he never hugged me before. I never saw him so happy as he was that night i have a. Good allow me to say. Im also. I want to thank every one of you. For coming here to stand up against violence only eats. Thank. God so when the rally was over i started walking down the stairs. My car was parked in front of his car and next to his casket his drive on my ass came back he said there he is he was maybe 10 or 12 meters away from me the most i got in the car driver started it and just as we closed the door we heard 3 gunshots strong. Enough more much of the old she got me she got my face were now seeing i needed it for that from the peace rally this is what we know so far in the face 3 shots were fired the Prime Minister rabin the jewish Vendetta Group claims to have shot rob. We still dont know the condition of the Prime Minister and thats a false emotion inshallah. I went to the hospital. Layer a b. In the family and Close Friends were there. And the hospital director took me aside and said its a bad situation almost hopeless. But a few minutes later he came to tell me it was over she was last. Layer and i went into the room where he lay on a gurney covered with a sheet. Says we saw his face restful peaceful when there was even a hint of us not cast x. Mile on his lips or a smile of acceptance. But. I kissed his forehead and left the room shocked about ahmeds. Talking. Can. You know these people who are fighting each other but dont organize each other have a kill each other and sort of was in the play but then later i saw robins meeting with out of