A FEW days ago, in the Egyptian seaside resort of El-Arish, Mr Yasser Arafat met quietly with his PLO executive committee for preliminary talks on amending the PLO's guiding charter. The idea was to set a date to convene the Palestine National Council (PNC), the Palestinian parliament-in-exile that is the only forum authorised to redraft or cancel the charter.
But only 11 of the 18 committee members showed up. And although there was some talk of arranging a PNC gathering for late April, the meeting broke up without a firm date being announced. One committee member, Mr Abdullah Hourani, said nonchalantly: "We do not see it as an urgent issue."
And, indeed, redrafting the 33-clause Palestine National Covenant, with its calls for the armed liberation of Palestine and its vicious condemnations of Israel and Zionism, may not strike all Palestinian leaders as the most pressing order of business right now.
But for Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, gearing up for general elections, nothing could be more urgent.
Mr Peres is expected next week to name an election day in late May or early June - ideally May 28th - and though opinion polls put him at least 10 per cent clear of the opposition Likud leader, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, in the race to be prime minister, he has tasted defeat far too often to take victory for granted.
The successor to assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, Mr Peres has failed on no less than four times - in 1977, 1981, 1984 and 1988 - to win the prime ministership outright; a deadlocked race with the Likud in 1984 gave him a two-year stint as prime minister.
But if there is one factor that could almost guarantee him success at the fifth attempt, it is the scrapping of the vitriolic anti-Israel clauses in the covenant. In essence, Mr Arafat holds the key to Mr Peres's victory.
The PLO charter was drawn up, of course, in another age, three decades before Israel and the PLO began their fragile process of reconciliation.
Mr Arafat has claimed more than once that it has already been superseded, but that was not good enough for Mr Rabin. He insisted that the September 1995 Israel-PLO peace accord, which provided for expanded Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank, also include a clause setting a deadline for the charter's amendment - within two months of the first meeting of the elected Palestinian legislative council.
The Palestinian elections were held, with relative success, on January 20th, but the elected council has yet to hold its first session. So the countdown has not yet begun, even though an inaugural meeting is expected at the end of the Ramadan fast on February 20th - meaning that the charter should be amended or scrapped by late April.
If that deadline - so soon before Israeli voters go to the polls - passes with no change to the charter, the impact on Mr Peres's re-election prospects could be devastating. A large part of the Israeli public bees the changing of the charter as the supreme test of Palestinian commitment to co existence. ___
Rather than indulge in protracted haggling over wording Mr Arafat is understood to prefer drafting a new charter and then voting through a formal cancellation of the old.
The US Secretary of State, Mr Warren Christopher, visiting Mr Arafat in Gaza on Wednesday reminded him of the symbolic importance of the move. Clearly US hopes for comprehensive Middle East peace rest on Mr Peres's re-election.
The opposition Likud yesterday formalised its alliance with another right-wing party, Tsomet, in the hope of boosting its electoral chances. The Likud had been contemplating moderating its opposition to the autonomy process but Tsomet is likely to push it further to the right. Tsomet's leader, Mr Rafael Eitan, describes Mr Arafat as "a criminal terrorist" and insists the PLO is still bent on destroying Israel. He says no peace deal with an Arab partner is worth the papers it's printed on.
If Mr Arafat wants to ensure that the likes of Mr Eitan do not replace Mr Peres in government, he would be advised to make amending or cancelling the PLO charter something of a priority.
Syria yesterday called on the US to normalise relations between the two countries to help the US-sponsored Arab-Israeli peace talks. The Syrian Foreign Minister, Farouq al-Shara, said in Beirut that Washington must have "normal" ties with Damascus if the talks are to succeed.
The US accuses Syria of sponsoring terrorism. (Reuter)