Twenty-four years ago in Rabat, Morocco, the Arab League passed the celebrated "three nos" resolution: no peace, no recognition, no negotiations with Israel. Despite the ambiguities in the declaration issued recently in Algiers by the Palestine National Council, it is widely believed that the Palestine Liberation Organization may have finally come to the unavoidable conclusion that the only way to realize the national aspirations of the Palestinian people is to recognize Israel's right to exist.

One of the major problems that continues to haunt the Israelis and Palestinians is the core issue of national identity as it relates to a territorial settlement.

For years, the conventional wisdom about the Middle East has been that peace between Israel and the Palestinians was unlikely in the foreseeable future.  

As Israel marks the 20th anniversary of the 1967 war, and as quiet efforts continue to establish a new framework for negotiations toward peace, the time has come for a fresh look at some of the basic elements of a future Middle East agreement.

Two thousand years of pogroms and persecutions culminating in the Nazi holocaust contributed immeasurably to Jewish thinking and behavior after World War II.

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