In fact, Oslo had furthered Israel’s goal of holding on to maximal land with minimal Palestinians on it. The agreements had fractured the West Bank into 165 islands of limited self-government, each one surrounded by a sea of Israeli control. Trapped in these islands and watched over by PA security forces that were subservient to Israel, Palestinians mocked the impotence of their Authority, their sulta, calling it a salata, a salad, instead. The uprising brought large numbers of IDF tanks into Palestinian cities, including the sulta’s administrative capital in Ramallah, where Israel laid siege
...more
