Handshaking

In this story:

• Ross to head to region
• What has been gained?
• The process has stalled
• Hopes have been crushed
• Oversold peace accord?
• Related stories and sites

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The United States on Sunday was preparing for another Middle East peace mission this week -- a mission that will take place only a few days before the fifth anniversary of the Oslo accord on limited Palestinian autonomy.

U.S. special envoy Dennis Ross plans to return to the region to push both Israelis and Palestinians toward further implementation of the Oslo interim peace accord, which was signed in Washington on September 12, 1993, by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

That icon of peacemaking has been tarnished and abraded by broken promises, violence and deepening suspicions that overshadow real changes in the daily lives of Palestinians and Israelis.

The peace accord negotiated in Oslo, Norway, was never envisioned as an overall settlement, only as a way to get started. The central concept was a step-by-step approach that would steadily build confidence and encourage compromise.

So, what has been gained in the five years since that historic handshake on a Washington lawn between Rabin and Arafat? It depends on who you ask.

For Palestinians, the peace process brought self-rule in all major cities of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Gone are Israeli army jeeps, curfews and nighttime raids. In their place are mundane symbols of normalcy: park benches, traffic lights, cafes, public telephones, reliable trash collection.

For Israelis, it has meant fewer days in uniform for citizen-soldiers in the narrow, twisting alleys of fetid refugee camps. It also brought acceptance in the Arab world at large, one that held the promise of a broader peace and new economic opportunity.

Yasser Arafat

But the peace process has been stuck for 18 months.

Israel has failed to meet deadlines for handing over more West Bank land, and fears are increasing that the two sides are heading for a major confrontation if Arafat makes good on a promise to declare an independent Palestinian state next May when the interim peace accord expires.

A U.S. proposal aimed at overcoming the deadlock calls for Israel to withdraw from a further 13 percent of the West Bank in exchange for Palestinian security steps.

"What will break the deadlock is for the Israeli side to really accept the American initiative that we accepted," Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath said Friday.

"It has nothing to do with the scope of the Israeli withdrawal, which is no longer an issue. What is still an issue is Palestinian compliance" with Israeli demands for security guarantees, said senior government adviser David Bar-Illan.

Nowhere are tensions more deeply felt than in Hebron, a West Bank city of 130,000 where Israel still controls the city center and large numbers of its soldiers protect a few hundred Jewish settlers.

The latest violence in Hebron erupted last month after a prominent rabbi, Shlomo Raanan, was murdered as he slept in his mobile home.

Israeli authorities said they believed his assailant escaped into the Palestinian autonomy zone.

But distrust grows on both sides of the dividing line.

Ata Abdel Karim Kaid, a Palestinian whose greenhouse near the West Bank town of Qalqiliya became a meeting point for Jewish settlers and Palestinians buying flowers and house plants, is bitter.

Israel's army plans to demolish his Paradise Nursery, fearing it could be used as a hideout to ambush settlers on a nearby road.

Kaid said appeals by senior Palestinian officials have been to no avail.

Joseph Alpher of the American Jewish Committee said the peace agreement had been oversold by its supporters, creating a backlash among the Israeli public when Palestinian militants carried out a series of suicide bombings in Israel.

The accord also failed to bring reconciliation at the grass-roots level, he said.

"By and large, there's been no change in everyday interactions," he said. "Oslo failed to instill confidence and trust between the two peoples."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.