Only the Likud could sign such an agreement without the country going up in flames.

45 years ago, when we were barely a handful of individuals working for peace with a Palestinian state, even in our wildest dreams we could not have envisioned that a day would come when a leader of Herut would sign an agreement with the leader of the Palestinian national movememnt. The messiah must be coming.

Obviously, Netanyahu did not sign the agreement willingly. He still yearns for Greater Israel, a land free of Arabs. But he knows that a compromise with the Palestinians is unavoidable. And that is our real victory.

Following the signing of the Oslo Accords, we initiated a serious debate about the agreement in the peace camp. There were those who said: "It is a bad agreement. Arafat gave in to the Israeli dictate. It will not bring about peace." Others (myself among them) claimed: "Indeed, it is a bad agreement, as full of holes as a chunk of Swiss cheese. But it starts the dynamics of peace which will from now on gain momentum."

At that time, I remembered the words that Rabin spoke to me in 1975, when he was serving his first term as Prime Minister. I reported to him on my initial secret contacts with the leadership of the PLO. He was strongly opposed to my suggestions and said: "The first step that we take toward the Palestinians would inevitably lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state." And lo and behold, in 1993 Rabin took that first step (and what a step that was!).

Now Binyamin Netanyahu has taken his step too, and it will inevitably lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state. I do no care how Netanyahu explains this act to himself, to his father and to his public. Most likely, he sees it as a tactical move, and his intention is to break it first chance he gets. No matter. History cares not about intentions but about results. Sometimes, the road to paradise is paved with bad intentions.

Public polls have long since proved that the majority of the Israeli public accepts it as fact that a Palestinian state will come into being side by side with Israel. Now it has been proven that the majority of the Israeli public (including the majority of Likud and Oriental voters) accepts Netanyahu's agreement to return a large portion of the West Bank to the Palestinian state-in-the-making.

Netanyahu signed because President Clinton left him no choice. The dream of a Greater Israel is clashing head on with the fundamental security needs of Israel: Maintaining good relations with the U.S. at all costs.

Netanyahu had gambled on Clinton's enemies, and lost. He thinks that he understands the U.S. where he grew up. Now he has learned a new lesson. It was expressed with brutal simplicity by Madeleine Albright, when Netanyahu threatened to abandon the conference: "You do not do this to the President of the United States!" In normal times, it may appear as if the Israeli tail wags the American dog. But during a time of trial, it becomes clear that the tail is just a tail, and the dog is a very large one indeed. A president in trouble, as President Clinton is, must be considerably more forceful than the average president, because he has a more compelling need to deliver a political achievement.

Contrary to Netanyahu's miscalculation, Arafat's calculations worked. Many of his people have not understood his actions in the past few years (and not for the first time, either). He had set a strategy: To weaken the Israeli-American alliance and establish an American-Palestinian alliance. It seemed like an impossible mission, but he stuck to it with tenacity and stubbornness for many years, years through which he suffered humiliation and smears from Israel, and much the same from near-sighted Palestinians.

Now his persistence has proven itself, and that is the real essence of the Wye Accords: The U.S. has ceased being a passive observer which gives unconditional support to the government of Israel. Now it plays the role of an active referee. Netanyahu will no longer be able to claim that "the Palestinians have violated their guarantees" (while he himself violates dozens of clauses). From now on there will be someone to determine if there is a violation -- and who the violator is. And that is a tremendous change in favor of the Palestinians.

True, the new agreement is also not a good one. It, too, is full of holes. But it is an immense improvement of the situation. And there is an immense benefit to the fact that it has been signed by the Likud.

Let us not delude ourselves. The road to peace is going to be a long and rocky one. It would suffice to define the minimal terms for a real peace, in order to understand just how long that road will be: The establishment of a Palestinian state on the entire territory of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, making Jerusalem the capital of both nations, transferring the settlers back home.

Today, all of this seems like a fantasy. But 45 years ago, when we rose the banner of Israeli-Palestinian peace, the possibility of a hand-shake between the leaders of the Likud and the PLO seemed far more of a fantasy.

The dynamic is working. It is inescapable. Peace, though it may tarry, will come.