The Oslo Diaries

It's 1992. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at a boiling point. The act of talking to the PLO would be treason for any Israeli citizen. Two Israeli professors have been chosen by government leaders to have back-channel talks with three Palestinian representatives in Norway. If found out, the professors would be arrested and the government would deny all knowledge. It's the start of a peace process which would face many hurdles.

This is history. It is important history. It's worth going over again. I'm familiar with less than half of the events. It's interesting to see the rest of the story and it has some interesting bits of behind-the-scenes. The conceit is that these are personal diaries of the participants. There are certainly some internal thoughts being expressed. I don't know if anything is being held back or if it has the full depth of opinions. It's compelling history and as a movie, it is compelling drama.

This is the story of the Oslo peace accords, from the period when it was illegal for Israelis to talk with terrorists (the PLO), to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the subsequent election win of Benjamin Netanyahu. The film is based on the diaries of the participants, interviews, historic footage, and recreations (with Kiev standing in for Oslo).

This is a fascinating film for those who want to see a high-stakes game of peace being played out, with the political backdrop of opposition anti-peace groups. Someday someone may make a similar film about the current Korean peace talks.

The Oslo Diaries is very much like every documentary that deals with the Israel-Palestinian conflict. It doesn't necessarily demonize Israel, but it shows very little about the corruption and lies of the Palestinian leadership. Was there a good faith effort for peace in the 90's? I guess so. But to show alwaysvtge perspective of the Palestinians as victims and not focus on the terrorism perpetrated by their leaders is irresponsible. It shows news about a killing that an Orthodox Jewish settler perpetrated in Hebron against people In prayer. Horrible of course, and it shows Shimon Peres disgust ar this act rightly so. But the film never focuses on the constant fear and violence that Israelis have to live with.

If you are going to show one side's problems? Show both. And also, the film basically blames the fall of the peace process on Benjamin Netanyahu. Not a mention of Mahmoud Abbas. Not a mention of the violence done by Hamas. It does rightfully end with the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin by a an orthodox group against the peace process. There are certainly people on both sides that are against peace. But this documentary decided to show only one side of that.

Not as objective as it wants the viewer to believe.

This film is very much directed at anyone who disagrees with Benjamin Netanyahu.

I didn't know what to expect of this documentary, particularly considering that I'm well-versed in the history of the region and some of the reviews (one previously here on IMDB that has since been removed) criticized this film because of its anti-Arab/pro-Israel bias. To be sure, this is a film made by Israeli filmmakers and those on the Israeli side comprised a larger percentage of those interviewed, as more-or-less Abu Alaa (Ahmed Qurei) was the principle Palestinian interviewed for this film. That said, the film puts more blame on the Israelis than is justified. The Arab obstacles to peace - and the incitement and encouragement by the Palestinian Authority that promoted suicide bombers in the 1990s and into the early 2000s wasn't discussed in the slightest. Arafat's duplicity is not raised even in a footnote. The one comment made by one of the Palestinians interviewed (Saeb Ekrat, I believe) is that the Israelis killed the peace process through the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin. While scenes of blown up buses and carnage throughout the streets of Israel were shown, no mention of the link between the Palestinian-State Sponsorship of that violence - justified or otherwise - was remotely suggested. And that's a fact. I say this to underscore that there is bias here, but it is anything but anti-Palestinian.

That said, the contribution of this film is not the exhaustive and principled explanation of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, but rather the insight into negotiations of that process that took place from the diaries that were kept contemporaneously with the initially secretive Oslo meetings that began in 1993. This documentary is not meant to be the definitive work on this subject, but rather an insight into the subjective minds of those involved in attempting to do something historic and unprecedented. While the accusation from Mr. Ekrat is that the Israelis killed the peace process with the death of Mr. Rabin, there is no mention, for example, of the two-state solutions offered by Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, after the first Netanyahu administration fell. No metnion is made of the Camp David accords in final six months of President Clinton's second term nor of the work that Dennis Ross continued well into President George W Bush's administration. In a word, it is far too reductive to blame the failure of the peace process on the assassination of Rabin, as the peace-loving left in Israel continued to believe that peace was obtainable until 2006 in which Hamas - hell-bent on the destruction of Israel and in stark opposition to peace-- won the Palestinian elections by a landslide. Of course, no one wants to talk about that, and it's easier to hate Netanyahu (not hard to do) than it is to appreciate the insidious obstacles to peace. Since then, everything has been more of a mess than it already was. The West continues to extol the virtues of democracy and elected governance only when those who are elected share the values and the ends that it seeks to achieve. When Hamas rose to power, the Quartet pretended that Hamas didn't exist, when everyone in power from every side knows that no peace agreement will ever be worth the paper it is written upon without the assent of the most violent and militant among the opposition. Look at the IRA in Northern Ireland. When it decided that the war was over, there has literally been no more conflict. At all. The same would have been possible had Hamas come to the table. Now, however, with the settlers and the emboldened Right in Israel, who knows when the next opportunity may present itself? Still, make no mistake: there were a good 10 years after the assassination of Rabin where peace - at least from the Israeli side - was not only possible, but actively supported by the majority. Even with Ariel Sharon in office, a peace offering would have been made, and in fact was his reason for breaking from the Likud party (Netanyahu's party, which Sharon helped to found) and forming a brand-new party called Kadima. None of this is addressed in the film. So no one should look at this film as the dispositive authority on the historical narrative and accuracy of the peace process. For what it is, however, it is a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at how a moment of hope blossomed, if for just a moment, in the dark history of a tragic and unnecessary conflict.

While the documentary gives much needed weight to the need for reignited communications & honest negotiation with the Israeli & Arab conflict in the West Bank & Gaza, it subliminally and unfairly condemns the current Israeli leadership as the sole responsible party for the current condition of these relations.

The duplicitous Arafat was no icon of peace, & was responsible for accelerating this bloody & horrific era in Mideastern history - he was no romantic figure!

Never loose sight of the fact that if the Israelis put down their arms, they would be annihilated, if the Arabs put down their arms, there would be peace...