ABSTRACT
As cogent as Touval's analysis seems, it is equally conceivable that, the having obtained Arab acceptance ofits Lausanne, Geneva and Paris invitations on the explicit condition there would be no direct talks with Israelis - was faced with a choice between indirect conciliation or no Arab participation at all. We are left with the conclusion that Mordechai Gazit is perhaps correct when he states that '[T]he question whether progress would have been possible ... had the commission operated differently belongs to the unanswered "ifs" of history. '39
