For many months now Dahanieh, at the foot of the Gaza Strip, has been unquestionably the world's most pristine airport, a spotless terminal building, featuring elaborate mosaics and arched entrance ways in traditional Moroccan architectural style, a gleaming control tower and two miles of unblemished tarmac runway. Yesterday, finally, Mr Yasser Arafat's Palestinian state-in-the making got the aircraft to go with it.
Beginning with the early-morning arrival of an Egypt Air flight carrying ministers, officials and celebrities from Cairo, Mr Arafat marched happily from airport lounge to red-carpeted runway no fewer than seven times, to welcome the inaugural flights.
Two of the first arrivals were Palestinian Airlines' own European-supplied airliners, which had previously been forced to take off and land from el-Arish, across the Gaza border inside Egypt. "You are a beautiful sight," Mr Arafat told his pilots in the VIP lounge.
Mr Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian peace negotiator, proclaimed that the opening of the airport, a product of last month's Wye summit peace deal with Israel, had brought the Palestinians another step "closer to Jerusalem our capital . . . and our independent Palestinian state".
A further major step forward is likely to be taken next month, when President Clinton is set to fly into Gaza International to attend a meeting of Palestinian leaders annulling anti-Israel clauses of the PLO charter.
Hundreds of Palestinians crowded on to the tarmac to welcome the first flights. A police band played. Uniformed security officers danced in circles of delight, waved guns in the air and kissed each other.
Even though few of the million-plus residents of Gaza have the kind of money for international travel, the opening of the airport may represent a psychological breakthrough, a new gateway to the world out of the poor, densely populated Strip, where the only previous exits were the rigorously controlled crossing points into Israel.
Not everyone was rejoicing. Underlining that his government is only grudgingly granting the Palestinians this kind of increasing leeway, Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, was most certainly not among the VIP guests at the airport, and neither were any of his ministers.
Israeli customs authorities have help up control tower equipment for months, so that yesterday's flights had to be guided in by a mobile control desk in a van. The Israeli public has been told that, for now at least, they may not use Gaza airport because of security concerns. Aircraft may not use Israeli air space.
Mr Netanyahu may shorten a planned trip to Switzerland, Britain and Spain, starting today, or send another cabinet minister in his place while trying to seal an accord with the former foreign minister, Mr David Levy. Mr Levy could be given the job of national infrastructure minister or finance minister.