Yasser Arafat

When the Peace Index asked “Do you support or not support at present the signing of a peace agreement based on the formula of two states for two peoples?” – only 47% of Israeli Jews said yes.

Rabin, Arafat, and then-Foreign Minister Shimon Peres were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize as a result.

The abject failure of the Oslo Accords has had a salutary effect on Israeli society. Israelis are today quite resilient, ready to endure – if necessary – protracted conflict.

“I had to do my bit,” Vanessa Redgrave told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published on Tuesday. “Everybody had to do their bit, to try and change things for the better."

When we hear today about Israel abandoning its democratic traditions or criticism about issues it should all be seen through the lens of Avnery’s critiques of the 1960s.

The unprecedented agreement was later signed in an official ceremony by prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat on September 13 of that year.

Avnery suffered a stroke in the second week of August this year, and died at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv on Sunday night, just three weeks prior to his 95th birthday.

Since leaving the Knesset in 1981, Avnery wrote several books and continued to be active in Israel’s peace movement. He famously met with Yasser Arafat in 1982 during the First Lebanon War.

With her long brownish-brown curls, Ahed was considered a popular poster child for Palestinian resistance, long before her arrest. Her time in jail, only increased her fame.

At the end of the day, it is up to the Palestinians to produce their peace-seeking representatives. No one can do it for them.