On one level the 1993 Oslo Agreement between Israel and the Palestinians involved a general commitment by both parties to resolve their dispute through negotiation and compromise rather than violence. On another level the Oslo Agreement--now, with its various supplements and implementing agreements, better understood as the Oslo process--involved a very specific set of mutual commitments and reciprocal obligations, the core of which was the old bargain of land for peace and security. Because the two sides were so far apart on the most difficult issues--Jerusalem, borders, refugees--they decided on a two-stage process: first a five-year "interim" period in which trust would build and the Palestinians would gain increasing autonomy and de facto control over the West Bank and Gaza, then negotiations over the difficult "final status" issues.
In recent months, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat has been threatening to make a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood (UDI) when the interim period ends, and Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has responded by saying that any such declaration would scuttle the peace process for good and trigger Israeli countermeasures, including the annexation of parts of the West Bank and Gaza. To make matters worse, hotly contested Israeli elections are now scheduled for May 17, two weeks after the deadline, thus hardening everyone's positions and bringing hard-nosed electoral calculations to the fore on all sides.
