More than 30 years after Oslo, Israelis and Palestinians are still living inside a map that was supposed to disappear.

Open almost any political map of the West Bank and three letters dominate the landscape: A, B and C. They sound bureaucratic. They are anything but.

Those letters help determine who governs, who provides security, who controls planning and construction, and where the Palestinian Authority exercises varying degrees of authority. But the most important fact about this map is easily forgotten: it was never supposed to become permanent.

Areas A, B and C were formalized in the 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement, known as Oslo II. They divided responsibilities while Israelis and Palestinians were supposed to negotiate borders, Jerusalem, settlements, refugees, security and sovereignty.

Those negotiations never produced a final agreement.

The peace process collapsed. The temporary map survived.

Temporary Became Permanent

Area A covers roughly 18 percent of the West Bank and includes many major Palestinian population centers. The Palestinian Authority was given responsibility for civilian affairs and internal security there.

Area B encompasses roughly another 22 percent. The Palestinian Authority exercises civilian authority and responsibility for Palestinian public order, while Israel retains significant security responsibilities.

Area C constitutes approximately 60 percent of the West Bank and remained under Israeli control over major security, planning and administrative matters that had not been transferred.

These divisions were never intended to settle sovereignty. They were supposed to manage a transition. Instead, the transition became the system.

Israelis and Palestinians are now fighting over territory through an administrative framework created for a peace process that no longer exists.

Oslo Institutionalized the Limbo

Oslo rested on a gamble: gradual........

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