MR Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli hardliner who came to power three months ago by castigating the previous Labour government's partnership with Mr Yasser Arafat, is today expected to meet with the Palestinian president himself, in a bid to avert the collapse of the peace process.
Both Israeli and Palestinian officials late last night expressed confidence that the unprecedented meeting would take place in the very near future, and probably today. Mr Yitzhak Molcho, a lawyer who serves as a key adviser to Mr Netanyahu, was reported to be in Mr Arafat's Gaza office late last night, hammering out the final arrangements.
Though the central feature of his successful election campaign was to undermine the accords reached by prime ministers Rabin and Peres with Mr Arafat, and to brand their relationship with the Palestinian leader "dangerous for Israel," Mr Netanyahu has softened his stance since taking office. His Foreign Minister, Mr David Levy, has already held a meeting with Mr Arafat, and in the past few days Mr Netanyahu has himself began publicly contemplating the prospect of doing so.
The change in stance is clearly a consequence of the rapidly deteriorating relationship between Israel and the Palestinians. Three months since the switch in government here, there has been no progress whatsoever in peace efforts - the Israeli army remains deployed in Hebron, the West Bank city from which it was treaty bound to withdraw last March, Palestinian prisoner releases remain on hold, most Palestinian labourers are still barred from working in Israel and there have been no talks on the final status of the West Bank and Gaza.
That deadlock led Mr Arafat to hold a general strike last Thursday, and a somewhat unsuccessful protest prayer session at Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Friday. Yesterday, underlining the extent of Palestinian anger and frustration at the new government's stonewalling, one of Mr Arafat's Gaza security chiefs, Mr Mohammad Dahlan, was quoted as threatening a return to the "armed struggle" against Israel. Mr Arafat's Palestinian Authority hurriedly issued a "clarification" of those remarks last night, insisting that Mr Dahlan had only been discussing a "theoretical" situation, and that the Palestinians remained strategically committed to negotiated solution.
If the meeting does take place today, it will signal the resumption of serious peace efforts, and the symbolic value will be immense - delighting Israeli moderates and infuriating the Israeli right wing. For in shaking hands with Mr Arafat, the hardline Mr Netanyahu will be acknowledging, three years after the relatively moderate Mr Rabin did so, that there is only one credible figure when it comes to peacemaking with the Palestinians: Arafat.