Palestinian leaders today begin talks on whether to declare the establishment of Palestine unilaterally next Tuesday, May 4th, the date when the five-year "interim" negotiating period with Israel comes to an end.
The talks, which may go on for days, are most likely to end with a decision to defer the declaration of statehood. The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mr Yasser Arafat, who has spent the last few weeks on a worldwide tour galvanising support for statehood, was advised by most leaders with whom he met to postpone a declaration, and to try to attain statehood in partnership with Israel, rather than at odds with it.
The most important advocate of such a postponement, President Clinton, has sent a new letter to Mr Arafat, setting a target date of May 2000 for the completion of a permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty, promising to upgrade US-Palestinian ties, and pledging US support for the Palestinians' right to live as free people on their land - a near endorsement of their right to independent statehood.
Today's talks, bringing together members of the 124-strong Palestinian Central Committee, will also be attended by observers from the Hamas Islamic movement. Hamas, which has never attended such a session, has always opposed peace negotiations with Israel, has sought to derail peace talks with a series of suicide bombings, and will urge PCC members to abandon peace making with Israel. However, most PCC members are loyal to Mr Arafat, and will follow his expected lead in recommitting the Palestinians to further negotiations with Israel.
Mr Arafat won a signal of support yesterday from the somewhat marginal Palestinian Parliament, which issued a resolution urging that the "necessary steps" be taken "to establish a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital", but made no reference to May 4th.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, campaigning for re-election here on May 17th, claimed yesterday that his tough stance was forcing the Palestinians to abandon the idea of a unilateral declaration of statehood. His threat to annex parts of the occupied West Bank if the Palestinians acted unilaterally, he said, forced Mr Arafat to "back down".
In election commercials broadcast on TV last night, and on the campaign trail, Mr Netanyahu is painting himself as the leader able to drive the toughest bargain in negotiations with the Palestinians, and to block Palestinian demands for partial sovereignty in Jerusalem. To underline that, Israeli police, acting on Mr Netanyahu's instructions, yesterday formally warned Palestinian officials of their plans to close down three offices in the Orient House, the Palestinians' Jerusalem headquarters, which are alleged by the Israeli government to be conducting illegal political activity.
Mr Netanyahu's main rival, Labour's Mr Ehud Barak, who is slightly ahead in most opinion polls, takes a more moderate position, and talks of reviving a partnership of trust with Mr Arafat.