I am a Paine me-retweet
📌A video of President Clinton saying, “I killed myself trying to give the Palestinians a deal; all of Gaza and 97% of the West Bank. They turned it down. They never wanted peace,” is making the rounds again. Mehdi Hasan responded by telling people to “Google Taba,” referring to the Taba Summit held January 21–27, 2001, just after Clinton left office. The implication is clear: that at Taba, Arafat either accepted a deal or was on the verge of doing so but ran out of time. That narrative is false, and it is disproven by Arafat himself 18 months later.
Arafat never said yes at Taba. He didn’t attend, didn’t accept any framework, and didn’t move on core demands like a literal “right of return.” We know this was a central reason he rejected Camp David and the Clinton Parameters, and the claim that the Palestinians were prepared to accept a symbolic or limited return is simply not true (this is clear from the Palestinian reply to the Clinton Parameters). Arafat did not compromise on this point, and he did not accept any deal. Yes, the negotiators, the ones with no power to actually approve any deal, to actually settle the core issues (e.g. refugees) said they were close when the summit ended, but there was thus no deal, no near-deal, and no missed deal due to merely to time.
And we know this with certainty because 18 months later, Arafat suddenly claimed he would accept Taba. The Guardian, hardly a pro-Israel outlet, ran the headline: “Arafat approves Taba plan too late,” and reported that Arafat acknowledged the prior offers were not good enough and that he had not accepted any deal at the time. Only afterward did he say he would accept them.
If Arafat had truly been ready at Taba, he could have said yes when it actually mattered: under the Clinton Parameters. He had weeks to do so, even after skipping the early January 2001 White House meeting where he was supposed to meet Clinton to accept the deal, despite committing to attend and say yes. Prince Bandar recounts in detail how Arafat left town without giving any answer.
This is no longer disputed among the key people involved. Bill Clinton, Dennis Ross, Martin Indyk, Prince Bandar, and even Saeb Erekat all acknowledge the same core fact: Ehud Barak accepted the Clinton Parameters. Arafat did not. Subsequent disclosures have only reinforced this. The Bandar interview, the release of Israel’s formal acceptance, the Palestinian response document, and Clinton’s repeated confirmations all point in the same direction. There was a path to full Palestinian statehood. It was rejected.
And the reason this keeps getting rewritten by people like Mehdi Hasan is obvious. This was the pivotal moment. A sovereign Palestinian state was on the table. The conflict could have ended, no more “occupation.” The entire trajectory of the conflict could have been different. And when given another opportunity years later, Mahmoud Abbas did the same with Olmert’s offer, later admitting he walked away.
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