Waiting For History To Happen

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Everything was supposed to change after Arafat signed Oslo. But while Israelis saw Oslo as the end of the war, Palestinians saw it merely as the first, conditional step toward peace. Today they still live with no state, no capital in Jerusalem. Israeli forces still occupy much of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, requiring Palestinians continually to move through humiliating military checkpoints. Jewish settlements housing 180,000 Israelis dot the territories. Palestinians have seen economic decline, while Israel's GDP initially took off.

Although it was never agreed in writing, Palestinians expected they would at last achieve their cherished goal of an independent state by the May 1999 date set for fully implementing Oslo. Israel seemed committed to withdrawing from something like 88% of the West Bank before final-status negotiations, but deadlines came and went. As of last week, Israeli forces continued to occupy at least 55% of the territory.

When hard-liner Benjamin Netanyahu took over in 1996, he made Arafat's life miserable. He delayed troop withdrawals and proceeded with construction of Jewish settlements. Later, under Barak, building continued apace. As Israelis became angry with outbreaks of violence and terrorism, ordinary Palestinians too grew disillusioned with the peace process. Palestinians felt Israel would never agree to their genuine independence. Without an end-of-conflict pact in sight, Arafat's place in history was never more on the line. When he signed the Oslo compromise, cries of betrayal arose from the militant Islamic group Hamas and such respected intellectuals as Edward W. Said.

A yawning psychological gulf made the prospects unlikely for a quick settlement of issues such as Palestinian statehood, Israeli settlements and the status of Jerusalem. Arafat went into the final stretch demanding to be treated as an equal party. But he felt the Israelis never accorded him that status. "They act like they are 'giving' something to the Palestinians," complains Mohammed Dahlan, Arafat's security chief, "rather than making a historical deal."

Dahlan, 39, is a veteran leader of the first intifadeh. With his looks and street smarts, he could have been John Travolta if he had been born in California instead of Khan Yunis. Like most Palestinians, he insists that the talks center on how, not whether, Israel should evacuate the territories it conquered in 1967. U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338 stipulated a "land-for-peace" formula, a principle that had formed the basis for the Madrid Peace Conference cosponsored by the U.S. in 1991, as well as the Oslo accords. By recognizing the state of Israel at Oslo, Palestinians felt they made the most magnanimous gesture possible. They acknowledged the Jewish people's right to take 78% of the original land of Palestine, though Arabs still consider it all theirs. Naturally, says Dahlan, Palestinians expect to get back the full remaining 22%.

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