After 19 months of deadlock, the Middle East peace process is back on course with the signing of a new accord at the White House yesterday afternoon. If there are any heroes along the path towards this agreement, then they are President Clinton, who has devoted similar energy to securing agreements in both the Middle East and in Northern Ireland, and the ailing King Hussein of Jordan, who joined the talks at Mr Clinton's invitation despite undergoing painful chemotherapy treatment for cancer.
At one stage yesterday, it looked as though the Israelis were prepared to scupper the deal by insisting that the US release the jailed spy, Jonathan Pollard. The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Netanyahu, knew that this was a bilateral matter that should have been debated by the Israelis and the US alone, and was of no concern to the Palestinians.
The dispute over Pollard erupted after all sides had reached agreement and after the Palestinian President, Mr Arafat, had left the negotiating table. The Israeli demands at such a late stage surprised and disappointed the White House.
Once again, Mr Netanyahu may have been bluffing - just as he was bluffing when he threatened to walk out of the talks on Wednesday. But everyone knew that an agreement had to be signed before Friday afternoon - the Israelis were not prepared to negotiate through the Jewish sabbath, and the Palestinian negotiators were refusing to wait until tomorrow.
By giving high priority to the release of a convicted spy, Mr Netanyahu has left the impression that he is more concerned about satisfying the demands of the hard right back home in Israel than in reaching a real peace agreement with his closest neighbours, the Palestinians.
Jewish settlers were warning yesterday that an accord involving a further withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank would lead to armed confrontations between Arabs and Jews, inside and outside the West Bank. Mr Netanyahu also faces a revolt within his cabinet and his own party ranks. And so during the nine days of talks, it often appeared that the Israeli team wanted the maximum from the Palestinians but wanted to give them the minimum.
However, the Palestinians appear to have secured much more than the 13.1 per cent of the West Bank the Israelis have agreed to hand over to full or partial Palestinian control in three stages over 12 weeks. But through astute negotiating, the Palestinians have also made major gains on the diplomatic front, have secured key Israeli concessions on many issues, and have ensured that a third Israeli redeployment from the West Bank, which Israel sought to cancel, remains on the table.
Now that the Israeli Prime Minister has the support of the opposition Labour Party for the deal, it appears the right-wing critics who wish to destroy his coalition have mobilised too late. But Mr Arafat, for his part, will have to overcome great mistrust and grave difficulties in selling the accord when he returns home, where there is a danger of it being seen as just another agreement imposed by Israel and the US, and where there is a real threat of renewed violence by Hamas and other Islamic militants.
Israeli officials have made it clear that Israel is not going to withdraw from the new parcels of land on the West Bank unless the terms of the accord are met to the letter at each stage. If there is a recurrence of bombings, Mr Netanyahu would have an excuse to jettison the agreement and embrace his right-wing critics, making the latest efforts for peace a vain exercise.