ABSTRACT
Part II looks at the three years of the “peace process” – from the ascent to power of Yitzhak Rabin in 1992 until his assassination in 1995. It examines the cooperation between Rabin and Yasser Arafat for the purpose of coordinating the three political arenas, and analyzes their failure. I show that the Oslo Process opened political space that could not be contained within one framework, hence the blurring of borders and the desire to contain the contradictions in the personalities of the two leaders. A process like this runs the risk, however, that if the leader disappears, the process will come to an end. I describe in these chapters the deep dependence on the two leaders, how they sought to control the process, and their loss of control and legitimacy. It ends with an analysis of Rabin’s assassination and the long-range implications of that event.
