Israel yesterday accepted the cancellation by Palestinian leaders - voting by a show of hands in the presence of President Clinton - of the long-standing Palestinian call for Israel's destruction.
Afterwards a summit between Mr Clinton, the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, was arranged. It will take place this morning "at the Erez Crossing", on the Israel-Gaza border, Israeli officials said.
Some 1,200 Palestinian legislators, politicians and popular leaders met in Gaza to firmly, finally and forever cancel provisions in the Palestine National Covenant calling for the destruction of Israel. The gathering included over 450 from the PLO's Palestine National Council.
An acceptable abrogation of anti-Israeli provisions in the covenant was achieved by compromise, with both sides giving a little. The Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, called upon the assemblage to "reaffirm" previous decisions to abrogate taken in a succession of meetings of representative Palestinian bodies since April 1996. And to do so by a show of hands. This satisfied the Israelis who had demanded a formal vote.
President Clinton warmly thanked those attending and the Palestinian people for taking this step. He called it "a marvellous day" and told the Palestinians "the eyes of the world are upon you".
Mr Clinton won over his listeners by proclaiming: "I am honoured to be the first American President to address the Palestinian people in a city governed by Palestinians." A decade ago this would not have been possible, he said. He made it clear he empathised with Palestinians as well as Israelis and urged Israelis to follow suit. "I know that the Palestinian people are at a crossroads. Behind you is dispossession and dispersal, ahead a future in your own land."
He spoke of the new Gaza International Airport which he opened in the morning - by snipping through a red ribbon after months of Israeli red tape delay. The airport, he stated, would allow the Palestinians "to reach out to the world", to export their produce and goods and receive visitors. And he praised the Palestinians "for not only standing up against what you believe is wrong but also for what you believe is right": against violence and for justice.
Mr Clinton and Mr Arafat referred to the successful Northern Ireland peace process, quoting it as an example. Mr Arafat thanked the EU as well as the US for financial assistance provided so the Palestinians could rebuild their infrastructure.
Mr Arafat warned that the issues of Palestinian political prisoners, Israeli settlement activity and confiscation of land could derail the peace process. He declared that the Palestinians could ultimately accept nothing less than the "end of the Israeli occupation of all Palestinian territory captured in 1967, including Holy Jerusalem".
Peace, he stated, had to be based on the "land for peace formula" and to include a "solution for the problem of Palestinian refugees, the removal of Jewish settlements and the creation of an independent Palestinian state. This achievement," he continued, "would pave the way for progress on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks" so that a comprehensive regional settlement could be achieved.
Mr Netanyahu's spokesman, Mr David Bar-Illan, noted that the charter vote was only one step required by Israel as a condition for carrying out further West Bank troop withdrawals.
