Road to peace

Until the final hours of negotiations, a breakthrough in the Middle East peace talks seemed unlikely. Only the iron determination of U.S. President Bill Clinton to keep both sides together until they reached a compromise has kept the talks on track.

If Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appear on the White House lawn to put their names to an agreement, both may reflect that signing a peace treaty is the easy part. The euphoria of the 1995 peace accord will be tempered this time by sober reminders of the difficulty each will have in selling the deal to their people.

Harsher attitudes, and an altered political climate have made the enemies of peace a much more active group. Netanyahu's supporters are not natural advocates of compromise, and Arafat has lost support through the failure of the first peace deal to deliver. Against that atmosphere, agreement is all the more remarkable, but it is exquisitely fragile. It has been driven forward by the steamroller of American pressure. The U.S., it is hinted, threatened to recognize a Palestinian state, unless Israel was prepared to give ground on some of the main issues.

Clinton has a lot to gain through this peace deal. It reinforces the success he had in steering the warring factions in Northern Ireland toward a truce.

But the divisions between Arab and Jew are arguably even more bitter than the conflict between Protestant and Catholic, with all the emotion engendered by territorial claims.

The peace process is not yet complete in Northern Ireland, and there is a harder road to travel in the Middle East. But at least the journey has begun.

-- South China Morning Post, Hong Kong