FOUR YEARS ago, this week, Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin, flanked by an elated President Clinton, shook hands in front of a public gathering at the White House lawn marking a historic agreement between Israel and the Palestinians to end Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright began her much awaited visit to the region in a bid to save the little that remains of that agreement. But in order to achieve her goal, Mrs Albright will have to demonstrate to all parties, particularly the Palestinians, that the US remains committed to a balanced peace process with the aim of achieving a just and lasting peace based on UN resolutions and the formula of the exchange of land for peace.
Restoring US credibility will decide whether Mrs Albright will succeed in rescuing the process it created and maintained over the last years.
This will prove tough, especially as the US initiative comes almost in the last and final hour when the parties have lost all trust in each other and when facts on the ground appear to be leading the parties more on the way to confrontation rather than reconciliation.
At the heart of the peace process today is the trilateral-Israel, the Palestinians and the US-commitment to the Oslo accords. It is obvious now that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is adamant on taking unilateral measures to suspend implementation of these accords. But whether Netanyahu likes it or not, the Oslo accords are all we have today of the peace process.
Mrs Albright began her trip to Israel with emphasis on Israel's security. That is a good start as long as security means regional security, including that of the Palestinians, the Lebanese, the Syrians and the Jordanians. And as long as security is indispensable from the peace agreements that were agreed upon after years of negotiations.
But to treat security as an Israeli concern only, Mrs Albright would be giving Netanyahu the ammunition he needs to disengage totally from his commitments to the Palestinians. Today he is suspending the bilateral agreements with the Palestinians in the name of security.
The deterioration in the peace process to the current desperate state did not happen overnight. Likewise, the rise of militancy among the Palestinians cannot be separated from the Israeli policies of collective punishment, land expropriation, judaization of Jerusalem, expansion of settlements among others. Such policies, and violation of agreements, have created a feeling of insecurity among the Palestinians. Will Mrs Albright address Palestinian security concerns with Israel as well?
While the peace process was slowly unraveling, the United States was gradually disengaging itself from its responsibilities as an honest broker and a major sponsor of this process. It took Mrs Albright nine months to make up her mind and finally come to the region. We will soon know if she was too late in making her visit.