A Sudden--and Welcome--Moment of Breakthrough : Israeli and PLO negotiators carve out a deal on Gaza and Jericho

Throughout the long and tortured history of the postwar Middle East, despair has never been far removed from hope. These two diametrically opposed emotions have never been more closely linked than now. For every assent of optimism raises anew the risk that hopes will be dashed and the region’s seemingly terminal state of despair will soon return.

Over the weekend, highly informed diplomatic sources let it be known that a potentially amazing breakthrough has been achieved in the dreary Middle East negotiations that have been going on longer than anyone cares to remember.

The agreement, reached in secret talks in Oslo between Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and a top representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization, would, if actually implemented, advance peace in the region more than any single step since the Camp David accords that nailed down the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.

Many details of the proposal remain to be worked out, and political acceptance from both the Israeli and Palestinian sides is far from certain. But the bottom line is that Israel and PLO representatives have agreed to a gradual program for Palestinian self-government of, and Israeli withdrawal from, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho. According to sketchy details of the agreement, eventually Palestinians are likely to gain control over some additional portions of the West Bank too.

This astonishing, if still highly tentative and broadly outlined, advance evidently came after about three months of secret talks between Israeli and PLO officials--held so closely secret that until fairly recently, few within the Israeli government knew. Indeed, Peres arrived Friday in the United States after a hastily scheduled 20-hour flight to brief Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who has been vacationing in Santa Barbara.

The so-called “Gaza-Jericho first” plan, as it is now known, is certain to trigger a storm in the Middle East. Today the Israeli Parliament is likely to debate the plan, and the opposition Likud Party, which historically has opposed any “land-for-peace” deal, will be out in full furious voice. No doubt the deal will also stir up die-hards on the Palestinian side, such as Hamas and other extremist groups, which of course have no use for Israel at all.

But the efforts of Peres, with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, must not go for naught. On the evidence that became public over the weekend, these two men have stuck their political necks out a very great distance to move these infernally stalemated peace talks forward. So too, as far as anyone can tell, has Yasser Arafat, the chairman of the PLO, who faced down a revolt within his ranks that he appears to have quelled, for now. Indeed, current reports suggest that the PLO high command has signed off on the “Gaza-Jericho first” plan and has begun selling it to the Palestinian rank and file in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem.

As well the PLO should. This deal would begin a process of self-government long denied Palestinians by the history of the region, the determination of Israeli governments and the shortsightedness of Palestinian leaders. But now, thanks to Rabin and Peres, an enlightened way out of the morass has been put on the table.

The Clinton Administration--whose sponsored Middle East peace talks resume in Washington Tuesday, where presumably Topic A will be “Gaza-Jericho first”--will no doubt do everything in its power to cement this deal. There is every chance that it might unravel. That would be a tragedy.