From pogroms to the Zionist movement; from Israeli kibbutzim to Palestinian refugees; from wars to attempts at rapprochement - the Oslo agreements, forged in the post-Cold War context, represent watershed events. The world watched as Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shook hands, witnessed by Bill Clinton, in 1993. Oslo came into force as a formal agreement, but it represented more than that. For the first time, after forty-five years of alarming violence and incessant conflict, the greeting represented the hope of commitment to the consolidation of peace between the two peoples, emerging as a historic milestone. However, the Oslo agreements failed to materialize. In the following years, negotiations were resumed at various summits and conventions. In the midst of dizzying cycles of violence and moments when peace was within "arm's reach", do relations between Palestinians and Israelis show progress or setbacks?