The Norway channel

by Jane Corbin

On September 13, 1993, the world watched, thrilled and still disbelieving, as on the sunny White House lawn the prime minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, and the president of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat, shook hands, thereby sealing the Declaration of Principles, the beginning of a peace agreement for the Middle East. The Norway Channel tells how this accord between representatives of two ancient enemies - an accord that had eluded presidents, secretaries of state, special envoys, and numerous back channel negotiators - was accomplished by an unknown Norwegian couple. For nine months, in Norwegian country mansions and homely log cabins, far from the prying eyes of the media and the critical forces within their own communities, Israelis and Palestinians ate, drank, walked, and laughed together as they hammered out a peace deal.^ There were moments of high drama, screaming matches, and sometimes farce, but the participants resolved never to look back into their