Who Needs Norwegians?" Explaining the Oslo Back Channel: Norway’S Political Past in the Middle East

Evaluation Report 9/2000 Hilde Henriksen Waage "Norwegians? Who needs Norwegians?" Explaining the Oslo Back Channel: Norway’s Political Past in the Middle East A report prepared by PRIO International Peace Research Institute, Oslo Institutt for fredsforskning Responsibility for the contents and presentation of findings and recommendations rests with the author. The views and opinions expressed in the report do not necessarily correspond with the views of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Preface In September 1998, I was commissioned by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to carry out a preliminary study looking into Norway’s role in the Middle East. According to the agreement with the Ministry, the study should focus on the years prior to 1993 and examine whether Norway’s political past in the Middle East – and, not least, the mediating and confidence-building efforts of Norwegians prior to the opening of the secret Oslo Back Channel – had had any influence on the process that followed. The study should also try to answer the question ‘Why Norway?’ – that is, what had made Norway, of all countries, suitable for such an extraordinary task? The work on the study started on 15 September 1998. The date of submission was stipulated as 15 April 2000. This was achieved. The following report is based on recently declassified and partly still classified documents (to which I was granted access) at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the verbatim records of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, records of government proceedings and the Norwegian Parliament, Labour Party Archives, documents from the US State Department and the Socialist International – to mention the most important. In addition, Norwegian newspapers have been examined; a large number of interviews have been conducted with leading players in Norway, Sweden, the USA and the Middle East; and a considerable amount of literature, especially on the peace process in the Middle East, has been reviewed. I would like to thank all interviewees for being so accommodating and for generously giving so much of their valuable time. I would also like to thank the Planning and Evaluation Section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which appreciated the importance of collecting all this information and which provided the economic basis for doing so. Last, but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to Martin Halvorsen – conscientious objector and research assistant during this project – who, with his historical insight and positive disposition, proved an invaluable assistant. He worked hard and systematically to find and procure relevant literature and documentation. Throughout the process, he has provided useful comments and helped maintain an overview in a complex stream of information. Professor Helge Pharo and Professor Rolf Tamnes have read and commented on the whole manuscript. Drawing on their extensive knowledge in the field of post-war Norwegian foreign policy, their comments have been most useful and highly appreciated. However, responsibility for the end result of the project – this final report – lies solely with the author. Hilde Henriksen Waage Oslo, 31 October 2000 Introduction 13 September 1993, Washington D.C. Norway’s Foreign Minister was among the prominent international actors, strolling in the sun on the White House lawn. The world had witnessed an extraordinary breakthrough in the apparently insoluble Middle East conflict. Through a series of secret talks held in and around Oslo, representatives of the Israeli and Palestinian leaders had managed to agree on a Declaration of Principles that paved the way for the establishment of the Palestinian Self-Government Authority and mutual recognition between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). A major turning point had been reached in Palestinian–Israeli relations.1 Norway had contributed decisively to this, one of the most serious attempts at peace in that strife-torn region since May 1948, when the state of Israel was created. Rarely had the Middle East witnessed such a moment of hope as on that bright September day. The Oslo Agreement was to be signed by Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, and Yassir Arafat, leader of the PLO. The President of the United States, Bill Clinton, was present as a witness – together with engrossed audiences throughout the world, watching this major event on their television sets. Few parties had ever been enmeshed in a more vicious spiral of hostilities than the Israelis and their Palestinian neighbours. Countless previous efforts by individuals, organizations, and large and small states to open up direct channels of dialogue between Israel and the PLO had all ended in failure.2 And then, through secret diplomacy and by playing a role far out of proportion to the size of their country, the Norwegians had succeeded where all others had failed, managing to get the old enemies to agree to both gradual Israeli withdrawal from some of the Occupied Territories, and to local Palestinian self-determination. What had made Norway, of all countries, suitable for such an extraordinary task? Before the ‘why Norway’ question can be discussed, it is necessary to analyse the main preconditions and causes that led to the establishment of what became known as the Oslo Back Channel. The proper framework and the proper context must first be established, and several important questions answered. Why did the Israelis and the Palestinians go to Oslo in 1993? What motivated them to sign the historic peace agreement in Washington that autumn day in 1993? And, most important of all: how did the Middle East conflict become ‘ripe for resolution’? What is meant by ‘ripeness’? When is a conflict ‘ripe’? The opening up of the Oslo Back Channel was not Norway’s first peace effort in the Middle East, nor was Norway alone in trying. In addition to many individuals, organizations, and large and small states, the major superpower in the region – the USA – had been attempting for years to stop the fighting over the lands both parties claimed were theirs and theirs alone. The Middle East conflict was definitely ripe for mediation. Israeli and Palestinian leaders needed and wanted peace; they saw their interests best served by a peaceful solution. This attitude was triggered by fundamental changes internationally, regionally and nationally, and constituted the basis for making the Oslo Back Channel possible. However, this ripeness does not explain why it was Norway, and not some other, and perhaps, more powerful actor, that succeeded in bringing the two parties together. In September 1992, the Norwegian State Secretary, Jan Egeland, visited Israel. The Israeli Labour Party had just won the election. The old warrior, Yitzhak Rabin, had realised that Israel needed peace. So had his longtime rival , Shimon Peres, whom Rabin had appointed Foreign Minister. His Deputy Foreign Minister, Yossi Beilin, was considered both idealistic and controversial by the Israelis. For years he had claimed that Israel would have to enter into a dialogue with the PLO, but he had been met with little sympathy. Earlier in 1992, Beilin had got to know Terje Rød Larsen, the director of the Norwegian Institute for Applied Social Science, Fafo. Rød Larsen had been in the Middle East because his wife, the diplomat Mona Juul, was posted at the Norwegian Embassy in Cairo. During 1991- 92, Rød Larsen was involved in setting up a research project in Gaza and on the West Bank, a project aimed at examining the Palestinians' living conditions.3 The Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, Yossi Beilin, explained to Rød Larsen that he wanted to give a push to the slow peace process in Washington. Rød Larsen, full of enthusiasm, suggested that Norway could establish an alternative track to the Washington process, led by the USA. By the time State Secretary Jan Egeland arrived in Israel in September 1992, Norway’s role had already been cleared with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Thorvald Stoltenberg. During his visit, Egeland was to try to find out whether there was any possibility of secret negotiations. For Beilin it would have been political suicide – as well as contravening Israeli law – to become directly involved in any kind of direct contact with the PLO. Instead he suggested two Israeli academics, Yair Hirschfeld and Ron Pundak, as suitable for the mediation task. These two were already in frequent contact with Palestinians. They could easily talk with the PLO. And, if anything happened to get leaked or if the negotiations should break down, they could deny the whole mission. On 20 January 1993, the two Israelis met with a Palestinian delegation, headed by one of PLO's finance experts, Abu Ala, in the little Norwegian town of Sarpsborg. With Fafo as host and the Norwegian Foreign Ministry paying the bill, a modest start was made. Several books and articles have already been published on Norway and the special Norwegian participants who managed to start the secret back channel and to help negotiate this serious attempt at peace. Myths have also been created. As in fairy tales, there is a strong focus on the role of the players, followed by personality-centred explanations: Terje Rød Larsen was the clever, self-confident and charming diplomatic man of action. He created the ‘magic’ during the process. His pleasant and elegant wife, Mona Juul, represented the specialist, working with Middle East questions in the Foreign Ministry. Jan Egeland, handsome, result-oriented and idealistic by nature, had written a thesis in political science about how small states could create results in international politics that were unattainable for the superpowers. Now he wanted to test his theory in practice. What happened next, according to some of the books and articles, was that the so-called ‘Oslo spirit’ simply descended upon the Israeli ‘peaceniks’, the PLO terrorists, and a few carefully chosen Norwegians.

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