Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres likened it to giving birth. And last week in Cairo, by the time all the signatures were on an agreement initiating limited Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho, it had proved a messy one. It took late-night negotiations, an occasional raised voice and steady prodding by Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak before the 186-page accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization was completed -- just hours ahead of a signing ceremony before 2,500 dignitaries and millions of television viewers. Even so, key issues were put aside for more talks, and a frantic midceremony recess was required when PLO Chairman Yassir Arafat balked at signing the accompanying maps, almost prompting Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to walk out.
Nevertheless, a birth it was. In coming weeks, the woefully underprepared PLO will try to assume in Gaza and Jericho administrative and security functions that Israel has performed since it seized the territories in the 1967 Arab Israeli War. Deployment of a Palestinian police force -- which eventually will number 9,000 -- has already fallen behind schedule, forcing Israel to delay the planned withdrawal of its security forces. Meanwhile, international donors who have pledged $2.4 billion over the next five years are waiting for the creation of the Palestinian civil infrastructure necessary to administer the aid. "For Palestinians," Mubarak declared, "the challenge now is to build accountable, democratic institutions of government [and] to provide for the economic well being of their people."
Christopher plans to return shortly to the Mideast to redouble his search for reconciliation between Jerusalem and Damascus, the key to a comprehensive peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Although the basic principles of a deal Israeli withdrawal from the strategic Golan Heights in exchange for the normalization of relations with Syria -- seem clear, any accord with Syria's hard nosed President Hafez Assad is still in the early stages of a long and painful gestation.
Rabin's government, which will start to enter an election cycle next year, would like to achieve a breakthrough by the end of 1994. But for that to happen, Christopher will have to surprise both Israeli and Syrian officials, who are skeptical that he has the force of personality to bridge quickly the substantial gaps between the two sides on the timing and details of withdrawal and normalization. Assad also must help -- convincing a nervous Israeli public that Israel can give up the Golan and stay secure. Says one Israeli official: "The Syrians are strictly preventing any political contact, anything that looks like normal contact between us."
Changing hands Much of the Gaza Strip and an area around Jericho are to be turned over to Palestinian control.
