55. Jerusalem, 1998 - Wye not
In which Eleanor goes to Tel Aviv
The peace process is dead. Long live the peace process. 
Eleanor
19 November, 1998
The “peace process”, such as it isn’t, is beginning to read like a bad paperback. Will she? Won’t she? Did he? Have they?
The Wye Agreement1: a breakthrough to be celebrated, right? Um, not so fast. So the Knesset has now approved Wye, but between Sharon2 telling the settlers to go grab a hilltop each, and Arafat jumbling up guns, the Intifada, Jerusalem and threatening a unilateral Declaration of Independence all in one speech, sending Israel into a predictable apoplectic fit, we’ve hardly made much progress. It’s like it’s push, push, push for an agreement in the US and then do everything you can to sabotage it when you return home.
Withdrawal did not happen today.
Prisoners have not been released.
The airport3, port4 and safe passage5 are not open.
So much for Wye.
The peace process is dead. Long live the peace process.
At the new Ambassador’s function in Tel Aviv last night I found myself feeling so alienated from the South African staff there. Even with Naughton gone and the new Ambassador in place, they still live in their cocoon world. They’re too scared to cross the lines, to even come to the office, or step foot anywhere in the West Bank for god’s sake. And yet Francois and I do it multiple times a day!
But then say anything about Jerusalem and they go into raptures. Most of them seem to have a touch of religious zealotry about being in the “Holy Land.” But have they ever so much as spoken to a Palestinian Christian? God forbid they might be confronted with that reality—to be a minority, oppressed three times over, as a Christian, as a Palestinian, and as an East Jerusalemite.
Bah. It’s the unholy f-ing land.
Gosh, I am being foul tonight. I really should stop writing if I can’t be decent. It’s a measure of just how low I’m feeling.
The antidepressants seem to be making things worse, not better. I’ve started having anxiety attacks, like I did at the beginning of the year.
But being out with the gang—that definitely helps. We get together a few nights a week now—just to hang together. It’s wonderful.
Bonus Material
Eleanor’s letters
Eleanor in Syria and Lebanon
Henry visits Eleanor
“The Wye River Memorandum was an agreement negotiated between Israel and the Palestinian Authority at a summit in Wye River, Maryland, U.S., held 15–23 October 1998. The Memorandum aimed to resume the implementation of the 1995 Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (Oslo II Accord). It was signed in the White House by Benjamin Netanyahu and Yasser Arafat, through negotiations led by U.S. President Bill Clinton, on 23 October 1998. On 17 November 1998 Israel's 120-member parliament, the Knesset, approved the Memorandum by a vote of 75–19. The Memorandum determined that it would enter into force on 2 November 1998, ten days from the date of signature. On 18 December 1998, the Clinton administration and the EU declared their contentment about the implementation of the first phase of the Memorandum by both sides. Israel, however, had only implemented stage 1 of the further redeployment, meaning that it had withdrawn from 2% of Area C instead of the required 13%.Both parties accused each other of not fulfilling its share of responsibilities under the Wye River Memorandum, and the further implementation of the agreement remained unfinished.” (Source: Wikipedia, Wye River Memorandum).
Ariel Sharon, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, later Prime Minister of Israel (2001-2006). Reviled by many in the Middle East as the “Butcher of Beirut” for the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon in 1982, as then Minister of Defence Sharon was found to “bear personal responsiblility” for the massacre by Israel’s own Kahan Commission. Sharon’s provocative visit to the Temple Mount/Dome of the Rock, with an escort of over 1,000 Israeli police officers in September 2000, is generally seen as one of the contributing factors for the outburst of the second Intifada in October 2000. As Prime Minister (2001-2006) he initiated the construction of the Wall to separate Palestinians in the West Bank from Israel and Palestinian occupied East Jerusalem, and from Israeli settlements. In 2005 he pushed through Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, against vehement objection from settlers and his own Likud party, while refusing to cooperate with the Palestinian National Authority for any orderly hand-over on the withdrawal.
Dahaniya International Airport, Gaza’s first, last and only airport opened on November 24, 1998. After the outbreak of the Second Intifada in September 2000, Israel shut down the airport, and a year later IDF bulldozers destroyed the runway. No new airport has been rebuilt.
The small fishing port in Gaza City is shallow and lacks the docks, cranes, and warehouses necessary for handling cargo ships. Over the decades a variety of models for a commercial cargo port have been proposed. None have been realized.
Safe Passage connected the West Bank to Gaza. It only effectively operated for a year, from October 1999 to September 2000. It was shut down by Israel with the start of the Second Intifada. It has never been reopened. With no airport, commercial port, or safe passage, and with Israeli and Egyptian control of Gaza’s borders, Gaza has been effectively blockaded since September 2000.
How can she not be depressed...impossible!