ABSTRACT
On May 13, Yitzhak Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met to discuss upgrading the Oslo talks. Although Israeli negotiators felt the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) had demonstrated some goodwill and both sides believed they were near an agreement, Israel's decision to raise the level of its participation in the talks was motivated primarily by the PLO threat to terminate the Oslo backchannel. He preferred to send a bureaucrat but agreed to let Peres name the envoy, a decision that suggests that, though Rabin had become more actively involved in the Oslo talks, he still wanted to maintain some distance from them. Upgrading the talks had significance beyond procedural wrangling and proved to be a pivotal turning point. It transformed the Oslo track from academic, exploratory discussions to genuine, official negotiations. The change also gave the PLO significant tactical leverage, in that they could threaten to disclose the negotiations publicly.
