ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS - 50 YEARS OF WARS AND TURNING-POINTS

In 1947, Israel accepted the U.N. partition plan while the Palestinian s rejected it and tried to prevent its realization by force. The resul t was catastrophic for the Palestinians. Following the Six Day War, Is rael withdrew from its liberal occupation policy and from its intentio n to avoid any changes in the administered territories prior to the po litical negotiations. This created a new reality that made any future political agreement extremely difficult. The 1982 war in Lebanon remov ed the last territorial base that allowed a Palestinian armed struggle against Israel, while the intifada ripened the necessary conditions f or the opening of political negotiations and reaching the Oslo Declara tion of Principles. The progress made so far is,no guarantee that a se ttlement can be reached in the foreseeable future. It is now the Israe lis who reject a territorial compromise. The political window of oppor tunity that had been opened in Oslo in 1993 has a limited time frame, which raises serious questions about the next phase of the conflict.