There was no entity to which Israel could return the West Bank in compliance with Resolution 242, even if it were so inclined, so long as the Palestinians refused to comply with principle II of Resolution 242 that required “termination of all claims or states of belligerency” and recognition of Israel’s right to “sovereignty, territorial integrity

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Netanyahu did follow through on Israel’s commitment (as stipulated in the 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Peace Agreement, also known as Oslo II) to redeploy from Hebron, then the last West Bank city under Israeli control. Under American pressure, Netanyahu also later signed the 1998 Wye River Memorandum, designed to resume implementation of the stalled O

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The Arabs pressed Count Bernadotte, still working on behalf of the United Nations to keep the warring sides apart, to make the issue of Arab refugees central to any resolution of the conflict. The Israelis insisted that they would not discuss the refugees as long as the Arabs continued fighting in an effort to destroy the Jewish state. So the Arabs

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FOR HARD-LINE MUSLIMS, the accords were heresy. Israel had no right to exist on Arab land, they insisted, and they would never accept a deal. As a result, rather than heralding a period of peace, the signing of the Oslo Accords began a period of renewed and intensified Palestinian violence against Israelis. Now, the violence was far more deadly tha

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