IT should have been a gloriously festive occasion the first meeting of the Palestinians' legislative council, its members chosen at democratic elections in January, to hear an address by the elected president, Mr Yasser Arafat.
But although Mr Arafat strode into the Gaza council chamber with all pomp and ceremony, yesterday's inaugural session may well turn out to be less of a landmark than yet another complicating factor in the deteriorating peace process.
Under the terms of the Israeli Palestinian accords a countdown has now begun Mr Arafat has two months to ensure the cancellation or radical amendment of the PLO Covenant, with its multiple anti Israeli clauses. And if he fails to meet that deadline, the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, has repeated several times this week, the peace process will be at an end.
The importance of amending the charter has taken on additional symbolism for Israel in the past few days with many Israelis, Mr Peres included, disappointed by Mr Arafat's failure to act more decisively against the Hamas militants whose suicide bombers have struck four times inside Israel in the past week and a half.
The amendment of the charter would help restore Israeli confidence in Mr Arafat as a peace partner, and the Palestinian leader used his inaugural address yesterday to underline his determination to effect the necessary changes in the document.
Mr Arafat also vowed that "we will not allow terrorism to stop the peace process." And one of his key aides, Mr Mahmoud Abbas used stronger language in interviews with Israeli newspapers yesterday pledging to "root out every bit" of the militants' infrastructure, and accusing the bombers of betraying their people.
Although there are signs that Mr Arafat's current crackdown on Hamas is harsher than previous efforts. Israeli officials say they will be persuaded of a real change only if about a dozen activists alleged to be the militant hard core are jailed by Mr Arafat or extradited to Israel.
While Israel maintained its own stranglehold on West Bank villages yesterday, attempting to thwart further bombings, domestic political debate intensified. The opposition Likud directly attacked Mr Peres for the first time since the current spate of bombings began.
The criticism was sparked by an Israel Television interview with Mohamad Abu Wardeh, the Palestinian alleged to have recruited three of the suicide bombers, who said Hamas was orchestrating the attacks to ensure Mr Peres's Labour Party loses the forthcoming elections, bringing the Likud to power, and thus destroying the peace process.
Mr Peres, on hearing this undeniably plausible argument, said he believed it to be true a remark that sent some Likud politicians into a rage, with several demanding to know why state TV had carried an interview clearly designed to help Mr Peres stay in power.
Determined to ensure Mr Peres has no chance at all of winning, two Israelis were arrested yesterday on suspicion of planning to organise a ceremony damning Mr Peres with the same mystical Jewish curse issued shortly before Yitzhak Rabin's assassination.