The Palestinian Authority is urging all Palestinians to participate in solidarity marches tomorrow in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, to mark the 50th anniversary of al- nakba - the disaster represented by the establishment, on May 14th, 1948, of the state of Israel.
Palestinians will also wake up tomorrow morning to news of the outcome of a meeting in Washington today between the US Secretary of State, Mrs Madeleine Albright, and the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu.
It was the upbeat briefing of Mr Dennis Ross for President Clinton and Mrs Albright, after the US envoy had spent last weekend in sessions with Mr Netanyahu in Jerusalem, that persuaded the president to give peace one more chance - to tell Mrs Albright not to fly out to Europe with him as scheduled, but to remain for a meeting with the prime minister.
Some Israeli government sources were insisting last night that Mr Netanyahu has bitten the bullet. Their contention is that he is prepared to sanction the American-demanded handover of 13 per cent of West Bank land to the Palestinians, albeit in stages.
In the first stage 9 per cent would be relinquished over a period of 12 weeks, with a further 4 per cent to be handed over at a later date - possibly at the discretion of the US - after the Palestinians have introduced a new, peace-oriented guiding PLO covenant, taken more drastic steps to counter Islamic extremism, and halted what Mr Netanyahu regards as unconscionable anti-Israeli propaganda.
Mr Ross is said to have been encouraged by Mr Netanyahu's "nine per cent now, four per cent later" suggestion. Not so Mr Yasser Arafat, Palestinian Authority President, who noted acidly yesterday that "there can be no compromise on a compromise". But since Mr Arafat has been bargained down from his original request for 30 per cent of the West Bank at this stage, a further diluting of his demands is not inconceivable.
Still, even if Mr Netanyahu is seriously prepared to implement this arrangement, and even if it can be sold to the Americans and then the Palestinians, there remains the far-from-negligible problem of selling it to the Israeli parliament.
The prime minister, who is being fought tooth-and-nail on the land handover by his Infrastructure Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, would have to rely on the backing of the opposition Labour Party. And though Labour would support him on that single issue, it would delight in seeing his coalition weakened, and intensify its efforts to force him out of office.