Israeli government officials are quietly relieved that, at his White House meeting with Mr Yasser Arafat on Tuesday, President Clinton made no commitment to eventual US recognition of an independent state of Palestine.
Less pleasing in Israeli government eyes is the fact that Mr Arafat still will not say whether or not he plans to declare independence on May 4th - the date when the Oslo interim peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians expire.
And most worrying of all is President Clinton's continued refusal to grant the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, what he gave Mr Arafat - a White House welcome.
This was the Palestinian leader's second session with the US President since the Wye Plantation Middle East summit last October. Mr Netanyahu, transparently blamed by the US for the stalling of the agreement reached at that summit, has not crossed the White House threshold since.
And US officials are adamant that he will not get to see the President before Israel's May 17th elections, because the Administration has absolutely no desire to boost his re-election prospects.
President Clinton chose not to join Mr Arafat at the press microphones after Tuesday's talks, but Administration officials say that he urged the Palestinian leader not to declare statehood unilaterally on May 4th.
They also say Mr Clinton pledged that after the Israeli elections, he would personally intervene to accelerate negotiations on an Israeli-Palestinian permanent peace deal, possibly setting a target date for such an accord.
Mr Arafat is still referring to May 4th as a "sacred date". If he uses it to declare statehood, the Netanyahu government has warned, Israel might respond by annexing some parts of the West Bank not yet handed over to Mr Arafat's control.