ABSTRACT
On 13 September 1993 the world’s attention was riveted, as one of the defining moments of the twentieth century took place on the lawns of the White House. It was there, on that day, that President Clinton ushered in Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat to sign, on the very same oak table that had been used to conclude the Camp David accords in 1979, the Declaration of Principles between Israel and the PLO. In that charged atmosphere the assembled dignitaries heard Rabin quote from Ecclesiastes:
‘To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. A time to be born, a time to die. A time to kill, and a time to heal. A time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to love, and a time to hate. A time of war and a time of peace.’ The time of peace has now come!
