Forward/Backward Contextual Frames Surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo I Accords

Using Zartman and Kremenyuk's (2005) framework of forward and backward oriented negotiation, this paper examines speeches and interviews made by Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the months preceding the Oslo I Accords. Three hypotheses and one research question were postulated. The first hypothesis, that the discourse will be significantly more forward - oriented was not confirmed. The second hypothesis, that Palestinians use significantly more backward - oriented rhetoric than Israelis was confirmed. The third hypothesis, expecting a positive relation between forward - looking messages and affiliation messages, as well as between backward - looking messages and power messages was strongly confirmed. The research question examined the frequency of the use of various types of forward and backward looking messages