Sept. 13 will be the 20th anniversary of the signing of the declaration of principles between the Israelis and the Palestinians, better known as the Oslo Accords. Despite some criticism from ideological and political points of view, the accords were a breakthrough and a watershed in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It happened less than two years after the launching of the Madrid Conference, which indirectly set the stage for such an achievement.
The interim accords were supposed to deliver, at the end of five years, a permanent agreement. Everybody is still waiting to go beyond what became a permanent interim agreement. Since Day One of the accords, the policies of the different Israeli governments have continued to create new facts on the ground in the occupied territories through an active policy of building and enlarging settlements under different pretexts. Thus the accords became an empty shell, a typical example of a failed approach to reach a permanent solution.
The 20th anniversary coincided with the relaunching, a month and a half ago, of US-engineered Palestinian-Israeli talks with the aim, as announced by the United States, of reaching a permanent settlement in nine months' time. The United States is trying to be a facilitator and a bridge builder without being a main player, at the request of the Israelis. Yet the United States is supposed to present its ideas to bridge gaps six months after the negotiations started. The talks began by focusing on two core issues: borders and security. An agreement on the former would solve or help solve many of the remaining issues. Nonetheless, the Israelis are still focusing entirely on security issues, setting the subject of negotiations alone. They are presenting security demands that will impinge upon and violate the sovereignty of the Palestinian state to be.
Israel is still avoiding presenting a map of its borders. It refuses former agreements or understandings such as the Olmert proposals on swaps while still pursuing an active policy of building settlement units under different pretexts such as previous adopted decisions that cannot be changed.
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