A last-minute snag over the release of an Israeli spy from a US jail almost wrecked the Israel-Palestinian agreement laboriously reached after nine days hard bargaining at the Wye Plantation.
The agreement is a remarkable personal triumph for President Clinton. The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, both said he played an essential role in reaching the agreement.
Mr Arafat broke historic ground when he assured Mr Netanyahu that Palestinians "are all committed to the security of every man, woman and child in Israel."
"Your security is our security," he added.
Mr Netanyahu, long noted for his hardline stance, said that now "our Palestinian partners will join us in fighting terrorism". He thanked Mr Arafat for his "invaluable" co-operation and called President Clinton "a warrior for peace".
The signing of the agreement yesterday at the White House was held up for over four hours as President Clinton and Mr Netanyahu, exhausted after all-night negotiations, remained at the Wye Plantation to argue over the release of Jonathan Pollard. The former US naval intelligence official is serving a life sentence in North Carolina since 1987 for passing top secret American intelligence to Israel.
There were said to be angry exchanges between Mr Clinton and Mr Netanyahu before a compromise was reached.
Pollard will not be released this weekend as the Israeli leader had wanted and President Clinton, who had already refused clemency, will review his case.
There was anger on the US side as Mr Netanyahu refused to go to the signing ceremony until he secured the release of Pollard.
Responding to Israeli claims that the release had been cleared in advance, the White House spokesman, Mr Joe Lockhart, said that "any comments or suggestions President Clinton committed to the release, or promised the release of Jonathan Pollard are false and inaccurate". For over six hours the agreement hung in the balance until Mr Netanyahu backed down.
The US intelligence community is said to have protested strongly to Mr Clinton against releasing Pollard who has served 12 years of his life sentence and is now an Israeli citizen.
The delayed signing ceremony took place in the East Room of the White House at the same table as was used for the Camp David and other Middle East agreements. There was prolonged applause when President Clinton entered flanked by Mr Netanyahu, Mr Arafat, and King Hussein of Jordan.
The strains of the nine days of negotiations were forgotten as Mr Netanyahu and Mr Arafat paid tribute to President Clinton's mediating role, to King Hussein for his interventions and to each other.
They shook hands warmly under the approving look of the now bald King who is in the US for cancer treatment.
The signing of what is now being called the Wye memorandum clears the way for the even more difficult negotiations on the "final status" phase of the 1993 Oslo "land for peace" accords. Under this timetable a final agreement is supposed to be reached by next May 4th on the borders of a future Palestinian entity or state and on the status of Jerusalem.
Mr Netanyahu and Mr Arafat pledged to begin these negotiations soon and President Clinton said he would convene a new peace conference but appealed for a method which would allow for more sleep.
Mr Netanyahu nodded approvingly as Mr Arafat, speaking in Arabic, pledged to never leave the path of the peace process or go back to confrontation and violence.
President Clinton referred briefly to the Pollard case, saying he would "review it seriously" but that he had "made no commitment as to the outcome of the review". He warned that opponents of the agreement would probably resort to violence and that it would take courage by the Israeli and Palestinian participants in the agreement to remain on the path to peace.