President Clinton's stamp is all over the Wye River agreement, which ends 19 months of impasse between the Israelis and the Palestinians on the next phase of the 1993 Oslo land-for-peace accord.
Just as the deal was being wrapped up, Mr Clinton had to spend extra hours resolving the crux over the release of the Israeli spy, Jonathan Pollard, serving a life sentence in a US jail.
But if reaching agreement on an "interim" phase has caused so much sweat and tears, one wonders what will be needed to clinch the "final status" talks supposed to end by May 4th next year.
With the President investing so much in these negotiations, a failure would have been disastrous for US policy in the Middle East, and a huge personal setback for Mr Clinton within two weeks of the mid-term elections.
For months the White House has insisted that the Monica Lewinsky affair has not distracted Mr Clinton from his duties and that in foreign policy he still has clout. He set out to prove this by spending over 70 hours shuttling between Mr Netanyahu and Mr Arafat.
Now Mr Clinton can point to his role in the Belfast Agreement and this Middle East interim agreement as proof of his influence in settling international conflicts. The US, through NATO, has also played a major role in the plan to restore peace to Kosovo.
The US effort at this week's negotiations was awesome. The President helicoptered the 140 miles over and back from the White House six times, bringing Vice-President Al Gore along at one stage.
At most other times the President was accompanied by his National Security Adviser, Mr Sandy Berger, and Chief-of-Staff, Mr Erskine Bowles.
On the spot for the full nine days at the secluded Wye River conference centre was the Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, and her tireless Middle East adviser, Mr Dennis Ross.
The presence of the CIA director, Mr George Tenet, might have surprised outsiders, but he and the intelligence agency's Jerusalem office have been a vital part of the most difficult section of the negotiations, the Israeli security demands.
The withdrawal of the Israelis from 13 per cent of the occupied West Bank in exchange for security guarantees from the Palestinians should have happened 19 months ago, but the arrival of hardline Mr Netanyahu in power put everything on hold.
The US gambled in bringing the adversaries to Washington and keeping them under one roof until they agreed. This has worked, but only after a terrorist attack in Beersheba and a threatened walkout by Mr Netanyahu almost wrecked American hopes.
The US side found the compromises necessary to resolve the crux on security, as the Israelis first demanded the extradition of about 30 alleged Palestinian terrorists including members of the new police force.
Mr Arafat rejected the demand as politically impossible, but both sides agreed to a CIA role in identifying terrorists and ensuring their arrest and judgment in Palestinian courts.
The Israelis, in return for this concession, were able to obtain guarantees on the round-up of guns and limits on the size of the Palestinian security forces. Mr Arafat obtained the phased release of 750 of the 3,500 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
But as the security issues were being resolved, the Israelis raised the clauses in the PLO charter calling for the destruction of Israel. Mr Arafat, with US support, argued that these clauses had already been revoked by the Palestinian National Council in 1996. But Mr Netanyahu challenged this and demanded that the PNC be convened.
Much finessing was needed to get around this problem, and there have been differing versions of how it was done. But President Clinton has said he will attend the ceremony formally abolishing the controversial measures.
There must be a huge question mark over whether President Clinton will attend a ceremony next May sealing the final phase of the Oslo accords. If agreement on a mere 13 per cent Israeli withdrawal has been so tortuous, how will the two sides agree on total withdrawal covering some 60 per cent of occupied territory, the question of Palestinian statehood and the status of Jerusalem?
Optimists will draw encouragement from the Wye River interim agreement, but pessimists will wonder if even the US can pull off that one.