WITH FAITH, hope and a careworn charity, Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organisation shook hands on a joint accord at the White House yesterday and rolled the dice of history in what President Bill Clinton called ╥a brave gamble for peace╙.
As the Declaration of Principles was signed at a sunlit South Lawn ceremony, Mr Arafat, dressed in chequered keffiyeh and a military uniform, offered his hand to Mr Rabin ╤ the symbolic gesture of reconciliation for which a watching world was waiting.
After the merest flicker of hesitation and a nudge from Mr Clinton, Mr Rabin acquiesced in the handshake, making eye contact for the first time with a man who for most of his life, and that of most Israelis, he has considered a mortal enemy.
Like the army general he once was, Mr Rabin╒s back stiffened as if from a shock. And indeed, despite all that had preceded this long-awaited elusive moment, a shock it was ╤ one that will long reverberate across Israel, the occupied territories, and the Arab world.
╥This signing, it╒s not easy╙ Mr Rabin said, his lined face expressing the sadness of a thousand funerals and the pride borne of Israel╒s 45-year struggle for survival. ╥We have come from a land where parents bury their children. We who have fought against you, the Palestinians, we say to you today in a loud and clear voice: enough of blood and tears, enough╔ The time for peace has come.╙
╥I assure you that we share your values of freedom, justice, and human rights for which my people have been striving,╙ Mr Arafat responded, his reading glasses and soft tone belying his ogre status. ╥Our two peoples want to give peace a chance,╙ he said to applause from a crowd of 3,000, a Who╒s Who of the American establishment.
But Mr Arafat was in no doubt about the risk he ran, both for himself and his cause. ╥We are relying on you, Mr President, and all the countries who know that without peace in the Middle East, peace in the world is incomplete.╙
The Palestinians, he said, speaking in Arabic, had suffered an historic injustice, that was neither forgiven nor forgotten and nor had it yet been remedied.
Switching to Hebrew in the day╒s most emotionally charged moment, Mr Peres offered a prayer: ╥Let╒s say together in the language of our Bible: ╘Peace to him that is far off and to him that is near, sayeth the Lord. And I will hear.╒╙
Sandwiched between the speeches, the accord was signed on a walnut table bought in 1869 by Ulysses Grant and used by Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat to sign their peace treaty. Mr Peres signed for Israel, Mahmoud Abbas for the PLO.
