Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories

A new, post-Oslo era has begun in the occupied territories. The understandings between Israel and the Palestinians that made possible the establishment of a Palestinian Authority lead by Yasser Arafat and the creation of Palestinian security services with a mandate in Palestinian populated areas [Areas A] of the West Bank have been irrevocably undermined.

Israel's construction of bypass roads in the West Banklinking settlements to each other and the national Israel highway system while "bypassing" Palestinian towns remains a prominent feature of the Sharon government's ongoing program of settlement expansion.

Washington's understanding of the policies and passions animating Israelis and Palestinians has never been very prescient, and the situation today is no different. As long as Israel and the Palestinians saw some value in muddling through a diplomatic framework established by the Oslo process, however, the price of Washington's misapprehensions was manageable. Today however, the United States finds itself unable to fathom the extent to which Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat have changed the rules of the game between them.