Dennis Ross is a voice to listen to in Middle East matters, and is intimately familiar with all the players there. He is director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and was the lead negotiator on the Middle East peace process in the first Bush and both Clinton administrations.
On the Oslo peace process:
Every agreement he [Arafat] made was limited and contained nothing he regarded as irrevocable. He was not, in his eyes, required to surrender any claims. Worse, notwithstanding his commitment to renounce violence, he has never relinquished the terror card. Moreover, he is always quick to exaggerate his achievements, even while maintaining an ongoing sense of grievance. During the Oslo peace process, he never prepared his public for compromise. Instead, he led the Palestinians to believe the peace process would produce everything they ever wanted - and he implicitly suggested a return to armed struggle if negotiations fell short of those unattainable goals. . . .
To this day, Arafat has never honestly admitted what was offered to the Palestinians—a deal that would have resulted in a Palestinian state, with territory in over 97 percent of the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem; with Arab East Jerusalem as the capital of that state (including the holy place of the Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary); with an international presence in place of the Israeli Defense Force in the Jordan Valley; and with the unlimited right of return for Palestinian refugees to their state but not to Israel.
It's a long article, but well worth the read.
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