The current talks in Oslo between Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, and Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, seem to be moving in the right direction, at least as far as the “procedures” are concerned. No talk has, so far, been focused on the actual substance of the negotiations. Setting dates, procedures, and frameworks appears to be at the top of the agenda at this stage.

Eight years after the initial Middle East peace efforts in Madrid, little progress has been achieved regarding the “real” substance of the conflict; Barak’s claimed “moderate” government is willfully pursuing illegal settlement expansion on Palestinian territories, Palestinian refugees continue to suffer grave economic and social hardship in Diaspora, water resources are still unequally divided between Israelis and Palestinians, and the question of Jerusalem as a future Palestinian capital is as un-negotiable for the Israelis as ever.

In light of the current talks in Oslo, Israeli and Palestinian efforts are moving in different directions. Arafat is expressing clear signs of urgency to put pressure on Israel to stop settlement expansion, and Barak’s “red lines” for settlements, refugees, Jerusalem, and borders are unchanged.

The “end of conflict” in the Middle East can only be reached by a more harmonized vision of the final status issues.