The Mideast peace accord

For an Israeli who never liked the land-for-peace formula, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has moved a long way to drop his ideological blinkers and come to terms with the Arabs.

A hawkish conservative turned pragmatist, he has discovered that the tortuous road to a real Middle East peace settlement involves making real concessions, and he has finally come around to accepting that. For this, he deserves plaudits and support.

Thanks to U.S. President Bill Clinton's perseverance and Jordan's King Hussein's intervention, the new accord that he signed with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat last week has broken the deadlock that had paralyzed the Middle East peace process in the past 19 months. Because the accord can easily be undermined by extremists on both sides, the challenge is for Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Arafat to stick faithfully to it, even if the tit-for-tat killings continue. They must not let the violence perpetrated by the intransigent extremists distract them from the task at hand.

-- The Straits Times, Singapore