The continuing expansion of settlements, facilitated by Oslo, is a reflection of Israel’s basic understanding of its continuing freedom of action during its diplomacy with the PLO. This basic understanding, reinforced through great effort throughout the negotiating process, is evident in the agreements reached between Israel and Palestinians that have punctuated the last six years– Oslo’s Declaration of Principles (September 1993), Oslo I (May 1994), Oslo II (September 1995), Hebron (January 1997), and Wye (October 1998). Israel’s freedom of settlement action is also reflected in a host of U.S.-Israeli understandings, from Secretary of State James Baker’s original Letters of Assurance before the Madrid conference in 1991 to U.S. amplifications of the Hebron accord in January 1997 to the unconsummated agreement on the nature of the “time out” in settlement expansion demanded in mid-1997 by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.