Haidar Abdel Shafi

A grim-faced, obviously empty-handed landlord walked out of the bougainvillea-draped villa that houses the Palestine Liberation Organization's information department this week, a promise in his pocket in lieu of the rent. In the office inside, Deputy Information Director Jamal Hillal pointed with a sigh to the lone telephone working on his desk, one of several that once had been there and the only one that had not been disconnected; it bleated plaintively into the warm Tunisian afternoon.

The Bush Administration can't order Israel around, officials here said Wednesday, and to prove it the government rejected the Dec. 4 date set by the Bush Administration for a new round of Middle East peace talks and said Israel will agree only to a "meeting or two" in Washington, the U.S.-designated site, beginning Dec. 9. But the Administration replied that it cannot change the date, which Jordan and Lebanon have already accepted.

When the long-awaited Middle East peace conference begins here Wednesday, it will resemble the scene at the biblical Tower of Babel. There will be very little communication and even less understanding between Israel and its Arab antagonists. The American organizers intend to give all the delegations an ample opportunity to say whatever they want during their speeches at the formal opening.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir Distinguished co-chairmen, ministers, members of the delegation of the conference. It is an honor to represent the people of Israel at this historic moment and a privilege to address this opening of peace talks between Israel and its Arab neighbors. To appreciate the meaning of peace for the people of Israel, one has to view today's Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel against the background of our history.

"To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven." Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's gravelly voice filled with emotion as he recited on the White House lawn from the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes. "A time to be born and 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."