The election of Benyamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister accelerated government approved or mandated action against Arab residents of Jerusalem and in the West Bank. Indeed, the guidelines for the government of Israel, approved in June 1996 by all the constituent parties of the Cabinet headed by Benyamin Netanyahu, stated openly that the Netanyahu government would break from the basic understanding of Oslo, that of land for peace, and would set its own principles.

The new government officially opposed the creation of any Palestinian state, the right of return of Arab refugees, insisted on the existence, security and expansion of Jewish settlements, eternal control over Jerusalem, and permanent control over water resources. The irony of Netanyahu's opposition to the Oslo Accords is that they, like no agreement the Likud party could have dreamed of in 1992, allow for this Jewish consolidation to occur; first by successfully incorporating many of these policies into the realm of the "peace process, and second by removing the issues of Jerusalem, settlements, refugees, borders, security and water from the arena of international law to a lopsided negotiating table. Since the Israeli elections, Netanyahu has proceeded down the same path as his predecessor, except with the use of inflammatory and humiliating rhetoric that has alienated his negotiating partners.

His initial refusal to meet President Arafat, his delayed re-deployment from Hebron, the humiliating offer to re-deploy from less than 10% of the West Bank in the next phase of redeployment,the continuing blockade of the West Bank and Gaza, increased house demolitions and repeated announcements of government sponsored settlement expansion further alienated him from President Arafat, the Palestinian public and the rest of the Arab world.