Nearly two years after The Handshake on the White House lawn, how do things stand from Israel's point of view? What are the consequences of the Declaration of Principles (DoP)1 signed on that sunny September day in 1993 by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and Chairman Yasir Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)? Has it served the country well or badly? Is it the basis of a permanent settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict? Can it be sustained?
This is no easy matter to evaluate, in part because of the passions the subject arouses, but also because the DoP has at once brought dramatic rewards and abysmal failure. We shall analyze these paradoxical results, then consider their implications for Israel and the United States.
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