Epstein Secrets

s over the first peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians. While many memories of that momentous day, and of the famous agreement, focus on Rabin and Arafat and on the personal and political chasms they and their colleagues had to cross while forging it — the play focuses on other people: tho

n. At one point major tension erupted in the negotiations when Qurei demanded that Israel upgrade the official level of its emissaries; ultimately, Uri Savir, the director general of the Foreign Ministry, and attorney Joel Singer, who spoke directly on behalf of Prime Minister Rabin, joined the talks. Ma

and Dariush Kashani as a hard-line Marxist Palestinian. Mr. Oreskes also shows up as Shimon Peres. But the most famous power players in this drama, Rabin and Arafat, never appear, at least not in the flesh. However, at various points, different characters do imitations of the more famous politicians

a poignant multifacetedness, as sworn enemies find themselves tentatively speaking the language of friendship. This is most eloquently embodied by Uri Savir, an Israeli cabinet member portrayed juicily by Michael Aronov as an exuberant rock-star dignitary, and Ahmed Qurie , the P.L.O. finance minister p

Arik, as did Sharon for him. With uneasiness, questions and outright criticism of the siege building both internationally and inside Israel, Arik got Rabin to helicopter north with him to Beirut. Yitzhak spent six or seven hours there. His verdict on the siege, at least as reported in the Israeli press,

us into a small room in the bunker reserved for use by the Defense Minister. As Foreign Minister, I was the only cabinet member with him — along with Uri Savir, Peres’s senior deputy for peace negotiations and several other Peres aides. If there had been a discussion, I would have told him that as long as he

-- PAGE BREAK --- OUP CORRECTED PROOE - FINAL, 12/9/2014, SPi Chronology xxiii 13 September 1994 Oslo Declaration. 14 October 1994 Prime Minister Rabin, Chairman Yasir Arafat, and Foreign Minister Peres are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 26 October 1994 Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty. 1 November 1994 —

est to Yossi Beilin, then Deputy Foreign Minister. Shortly afterwards, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres dispatched the Director General of the ministry, Uri Savir, and the head of the ministry’s legal department, Joel Singer, to Oslo. The Norwegians had, until then, seen the secret talks in Oslo and their poten

during the Nineties, I came to know a number of these players personally. Many of them are no longer around to reflect on Rogers’s version of events. Rabin, the great Israeli warrior-turned-politician who agreed to make peace with Arafat, aman most Israelis, as one Israeli character in the play remarks,

Arafat as an effeminate narcissist, a portrayal I found entirely plausible from my own encounters with the PLO leader, whose vanity knew no bounds. Uri Savir, who was deputed by Peres to run the Israeli side of the negotiations, was someone else I got to know during that period. An urbane multi-linguist of