Filling in the Blanks

Like a couple committed to marriage but unsure how to live together, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization last week shrugged off their mutual uncertainties and, fingers crossed, set a date to begin a new future. Though negotiators had still not resolved all the details of Palestinian self-rule despite six months of wrangling, they agreed to worry later about the few outstanding issues and get on with the long-delayed transfer of power, beginning this week. Said Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, after sealing the date with P.L.O. chief Yasser Arafat in Cairo: "It is, I think, the end of a long...