"Oslo is Dead"

The constant international obsession with the Israeli-Palestinian question continues. The last seemed-like-it-might-work protocols are now clearly dead. So what's next, asks Geoffrey Aronson at Al Jazeera.

What has changed is that today there is a growing sense that Israel must set the agenda for the post-Oslo era. Israeli leaders now see an opportunity to make a dramatic Israeli move, to shuffle the cards in a way that responds to domestic political pressures to respond to continuing protests, advances Israel's settlement interests, and exploits Washington's retreat from diplomacy.

"If we do not initiate, someone else will take the initiative for moulding our future," warned a retired Israeli military general Shlomo Yanai.

Jerusalem is the crown jewel of Israel's national and territorial aspirations. And it is the place where the effort to square the circle of challenges posed by annexation is centred.

The contest over Al-Aqsa commands the most attention, but Israeli efforts since the second Intifada have focused on reducing the number and access of Palestinians in the city.

My sense of this conflict has always been that the Israelis should set the agenda and resolve it however they wished. Israel has repeatedly won its right to exist on the field of honor, even if you are not inclined to believe in its Biblical warrant. The decades of constant meddling in these internal affairs has done nothing to bring peace to the land.