Journalists have long joked that the headline MIDEAST PEACE HOPES DIM could run over a story written today, next year or, probably, in A.D. 2030. That may no longer be the case. As the intermittent Israeli-Arab talks that began in Madrid 10 months ago resumed in Washington, Palestinians and representatives of Israel's new Labor-led government got down to serious discussions over a substantive matter: how a proposed elected council might be empowered to bring a measure of self-government to the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Eager to tone down animosity, Jerusalem's negotiators have stopped referring to the West Bank by...
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