For an agreement intended to demonstrate a sea-change in Israeli-Palestinian ties, a new era of mutual trust and respect, the latest land-for-peace deal negotiated between the sides has had an ugly, ill-natured inception.
All this week, Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, has been setting, and then resetting, deadlines for the Palestinians - insisting they accept his terms ahead of this cabinet meeting, before that ministerial visit. The Palestinians, for their part, have held firm, spread talk of crisis, and told Mr Barak to refrain from issuing ultimatums.
Aides to President Mubarak, the impatient would-be host of the signing ceremony, were confident pens would be put to papers yesterday, at 5 p.m., in Alexandria. Then it was 6 p.m.
Then it was maybe late last night. And then it was today, maybe. Or tomorrow.
And yet, despite the endless posturing and bickering, the wider picture is of a return to the serious business of peacemaking, a genuine departure from the three-year period of pointless mutual recrimination under Mr Benjamin Netanyahu's prime ministership.
Mrs Madeleine Albright was careful not to mention the loathed Mr Netanyahu by name at a press conference she held in Alexandria yesterday, but she delivered a fierce assault on his policies, declaring that the "bonds of confidence" built up so painstakingly by Mr Arafat and Mr Yitzhak Rabin in the early 1990s had been systematically eroded.
Now, with Mr Barak's arrival as prime minister, the parties were talking again.
The difficulties over the last few days stem partly from Mr Barak's desire to convey the message that, while he is a serious peacemaker in the Rabin mould, he is not going to accede to every Palestinian demand, and he will be particularly grudging on issues - such as the release of Palestinian prisoners - that he regards as central to Israeli security.
The delays also stem from Mr Arafat's desire to involve Mrs Albright directly in the negotiations - to keep the Americans central to the process, rather than marginalising them, as Mr Barak would wish to do. As of last night, Mr Arafat had already succeeded in this endeavour. Mrs Albright, who had indicated she had no desire to play a role in the formulation of this latest deal, was phoning Mr Barak, relaying his comments to Mr Arafat, and resigning herself to a further bout of mediation.
Mr Arafat is also presumably not unhappy to have Mrs Albright preoccupied with the Palestinian issue, rather than flying off to Damascus to revive Israeli-Syrian peace efforts.
The Secretary of State wanted to fly into Egypt, get the Israeli-Palestinian accord signed and sealed away, and then head to Damascus to discuss with President Assad a Golan Heights-for-peace deal. Those talks still remain on her itinerary, but Mr Arafat has ensured that his problems remain at a centre stage, that his concerns are not being edged out of the spotlight in the rush to bring Syria into the peacemakers' club.