Why did the Palestinians not deliver? Well, in part it's because of the leadership. But I think more deeply it is due to the fact that in the Palestinian body politic there was a deeply entrenched desire not to accept Israel. There is a widespread ... to put it positively ... a widespread Palestinian rejection of Israel's existence. Oslo assumed Palestinian acceptance of Israel. This was a fact, or at least was a fact with the beginning of Oslo, this is what Arafat offered. Wrong. It did not happen.

In fact, there was a terrible logic in the course of those seven years. That as the Israelis made concessions, gave autonomy, turned over tax revenues, permitted various developments in the Palestinian Authority to take place, Palestinian ambitions against Israel, rather than being tamped down by finding their own satisfaction in their own autonomy and economy and culture and politics, in fact what happened is the Palestinians became more displeased with the continuing existence of Israel. So there was this terrible logic, in that the more that Israel gave the more anger it found directed against it. If there was a cycle of violence, this was it. Israeli concessions led to more rejectionism on the Palestinian part. -- Daniel Pipes

Basically right on. Its what Churchill called feeding the alligator, hoping he wont eat you last. The appeasement strategy of Israeli concessions only whetted Palestinian ambitions, since it made them feel Israel was weak and pliable, and that Israel had essentially admitted its guilt to their accusations. They saw Oslo as Israel admitting it had no right to exist. Violence was, simply, inevitable in such a situation.