Circus of the dancing bears
The late Yitzhak Rabin used to say that the only problem with dancing with a bear is that once you start, you can never let go. Watching the current Hamas-Fatah unity circus, I can’t help but think of Rabin’s comment. For the former Israeli Prime Minister, Yasser Arafat was the bear and the Oslo process ...
The late Yitzhak Rabin used to say that the only problem with dancing with a bear is that once you start, you can never let go.
The late Yitzhak Rabin used to say that the only problem with dancing with a bear is that once you start, you can never let go.
Watching the current Hamas-Fatah unity circus, I can’t help but think of Rabin’s comment. For the former Israeli Prime Minister, Yasser Arafat was the bear and the Oslo process was their choreographed dance. Rabin was no sentimentalist and he recognized Arafat’s many weaknesses as a partner, but he continued to engage with him because he believed his counterpart had taken tough positions. Oslo was a good faith effort to achieve a goal.
Aaron David Miller is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former U.S. State Department Middle East analyst and negotiator in Republican and Democratic administrations. He is the author of The End of Greatness: Why America Can’t Have (and Doesn’t Want) Another Great President. Twitter: @aarondmiller2
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