By Hoda Tewfik The signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House was the triumphant moment President Bill Clinton had hoped for, opening for him a new chapter of personal diplomacy. "I congratulate President Clinton who has given new meaning to the term shuttle diplomacy," said Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Albright and the other participants -- Binyamin Netanyahu, Yasser Arafat and King Hussein -- showered Clinton with praise. During the nine-day summit at the Wye River Plantation, Clinton had made the biggest diplomatic investment of his presidency. Although the accord has not resolved the toughest issues facing Israel and the Palestinians and will lead to a greater US involvement in their problems, Clinton can now boast that he has become a statesman. No one can dispute the fact that the summit gave Clinton the opportunity to play the astute politician for more than a week -- although he remained mostly out of sight -- using his presence to put pressure on the negotiators to make compromises. When he returned on Friday by helicopter to the south lawn of the White House, he gave the thumbs-up sign to the waiting reporters and photographers. The agreement he brokered did not only end a 19-month stalemate between Israelis and Palestinians over land and security issues, it also -- though only up to a certain point -- ended a debate over the relevance of Bill Clinton's presidency, analysts say. The success promises to restore some lustre to a legacy that has of late been mired in the Monica Lewinsky affair. Signed just days before the mid-term congressional elections that may determine whether Clinton will be impeached, the Wye accord could not have come at a more opportune time. And indeed, the President was already boasting of his success when he campaigned shortly afterwards for the Democrats in the approaching November elections. The Washington Institute has since held a seminar to evaluate the deal and America's future involvement. Robert Satloff, the executive director, said: "The fact that we have a president who can sit down with [Palestinian negotiators] Amin Al-Hendi and Dakhlan and have a detailed, intensive conversation, says something about his knowledge of the issues and his intensity. The nine days will be dissected over time for their remarkable expansion and deepening of the American role." Satloff's believes the real success was that Israel is getting 99 per cent of what it wanted on the Palestinian national charter issue. By 15 December, the problem will be laid to rest as a bone of contention between Israel and the Palestinians, he said. The Palestinians, in Satloff's view, won a major symbolic gesture in Clinton's planned visit to Gaza on 15 December to witness the final revocation of two dozen articles in the charter "which are inconsistent with peace," Satloff said. Clinton's presence in Gaza will be highly significant for the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) because, under US law, the PLO continues to be classified as a terrorist organisation, he pointed out. The federal government has issued a waiver on national security grounds, but the status of the PLO as a terrorist organisation remains so far unchanged. Clinton's address to the Palestinian Central Council will be the ultimate symbolic end of the PLO's image in America as a terrorist organisation, Satloff argued. On the other hand, Clinton is coming under heavy criticism for getting the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) involved as a player and arbitrator in the implementation of the counter-terrorism arrangements. The US Congress is considering holding a hearing on the matter and Senator Shelby, chairman of the intelligence committee, has found the matter "troubling."
