Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Wednesday morning!
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords. In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement fell short of its goals, the impact that the Accords had on the rise of the Israeli right and where the peace process stands in 2023. Read more below for the views from Jerusalem and Washington.
In D.C. yesterday, the State Department was quick to push back on Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s comments, made earlier this week to NBC News’ Lester Holt, that Iran will use the $6 billion it is receiving from the upcoming prisoner exchange as it wishes. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the funds can “only be used for humanitarian purposes” and its usage will be under “strict oversight” from the Treasury Department.
The comments from Foggy Bottom come as Democrats who’ve been skeptical of the Biden administration’s efforts to negotiate with Iran offer restrained responses to the White House’s deal to free American hostages from Iran, in exchange for Iranian prisoners and sanctioned funds. Republicans, by contrast, have blasted the administration and the agreement.
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod yesterday that the agreement “raises the broader question of what are we going to do to tell Americans that there are some countries that they just can’t travel to? Because unless we do that, we are going to be put in a perpetual cycle of hostage-taking and then being put in challenges as it relates to national security issues.”
Menendez said he didn’t “know if [the deal] incentivizes further hostage-taking” as Republicans have charged, but added that “it certainly at the end of the day doesn’t change the way that we deal with this question.” He said he’s mulling legislation to prevent travel to risky destinations like Russia and Iran.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said that the situation appears to remain in flux, telling JI, “I’m looking at the details and I’m not sure if we know all of them yet or even that the deal is final.”
We spoke to the Senate Democrats as the House overwhelmingly approved three Iran-related measures:
The Fight CRIME Act, a sanctions bill addressing Iran’s missiles and drones, passed by a 403-8 vote, with far-left Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Cori Bush (D-MO), Summer Lee (D-PA), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Presley (D-MA) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) joining libertarian isolationist Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in voting against the legislation.
The MAHSA Act, which levels further sanctions on the Iranian regime, passed 410-3. Bush, Massie and Omar voted against it. A resolution condemning Iranian human rights abuses passed 413-2, with Massie and Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) voting against.
Today, the House Oversight Committee’s National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs subcommittee will hear testimony from Foundation for Defense of Democracies Senior Advisor Richard Goldberg (who has a new op-ed in the New York Post today on the hostage exchange), Jewish Institute for National Security of America President and CEO Michael Makovsky, Stimson Center Distinguished Fellow Barbara Slavin and Victoria Coates, vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation.
a generation reflects
Thirty years on, are the Oslo Accords still relevant?

It was a moment that remains emblazoned in the annals of history: Two bitter enemies – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat – shaking hands in a public ceremony on the White House lawn on Sept. 13, 1993, and establishing a future vision of two states for two peoples living side by side in peace, dignity and security. While the concept of the “Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements,” or, as it is better known, the Oslo Accords, has endured in the talking points of U.S. and European officials and analysts, for a whole new generation of Israelis and Palestinians, that dream of peace remains elusive. Three decades later, the question lingers as to whether the basic premise of Oslo is in any way salvageable or realistic today, Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports.
Time for a new approach: Analysts, experts and even some of those involved in the initial and subsequent agreements interviewed by JI agreed that although part of the fundamental and practical infrastructure of Oslo might remain, the underlying goal of a two-state solution, as envisaged in 1993, has more or less failed. In order to move forward and find a possible solution to this intractable conflict, many said they believe it is time to consider a different approach.
Where we are: “Let’s be clear about this, Oslo was a groundbreaking process,” Dan Miodownik, a professor of political science and international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told JI in an interview ahead of the anniversary of that handshake. “It was an extremely important moment that really filled Israel, Palestine and the region with hope,” Miodownik, a conflict resolution expert, continued. “The fact that the agreement failed in the implementation stage is a huge disaster, and while we can analyze why that happened or who is to blame, the fact is that this is where we are 30 years after the signing.”
Palestinian POV: Samer Sinijlawi, head of the Jerusalem Development Fund for Education and Community Development, a nonprofit that raises greater awareness of Palestinian issues around the world, told JI, “For my generation, Oslo, initially, looked like the beginning of our dreams. Finally, Rabin and Arafat were shaking hands, it looked like we were no longer enemies,” he reminisced. “It was very symbolic and there was a lot of hope. We [Palestinians] were not a very political people, and we were a little bit naïve back then,” Sinijlawi continued, explaining how while the violence of the First Intifada forced the sides to consider reconciliation, the Second Intifada, which sparked multiple suicide bombings, did the opposite. “It killed the peace camp in Israel and the Israeli confidence in the Palestinians.”
More from Washington: The Washington Post published an op-ed by Dennis Ross and David Makovsky on the 30th anniversary of the Oslo Accords.