Minister Haim Ramon, who has been placed in charge of organizing the visit, says it is the most important visit in the history of the state. Israel and the PA will do whatever it takes to win the his blessing for their respective national aspirations. The enormous media coverage of the visit will guarantee that each side will do its best to show the billions of television viewers worldwide who is really in charge of the city's holy sites and to demonstrate its ability to defend the safety and freedom of access and worship at those sites.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat considers the visit by the pope a major station on the road to Palestinian independence, and he is planning a huge celebration in Bethlehem. There are those in Israel who fear Palestinian provocations in Jerusalem, especially that the Palestinians will turn the pope's pilgrimage to the Temple Mount into a demonstration of Palestinian control over the holy site. The Foreign Ministry has conducted sensitive negotiations with the Vatican for months in an attempt to limit the boundaries of the visit. Israel will turn a blind eye to other symbols of Palestinian sovereignty. It will not be able to prevent the hoisting of Palestinian flags in the environs of the Al Aqsa Mosque, nor will it try to do so.

On March 26, the pope will fly back to Rome leaving the Israelis and Palestinians behind to continue sparring. Israeli defense experts expect that the pope's departure will bring the interval of Arafat's good behavior to an end. He wants to demonstrate that he can be responsible and can guarantee security for an event of this magnitude. But the incident last Saturday in which rocks were hurled at French PM Jospin at Bir Zeit University tarnished that image a bit.

Barak has publicly adhered to the program that he has outlined for the peace process with the Palestinians: first a framework agreement, then an agreement on a third withdrawal, followed by a final status settlement to be signed in September. But he has read the military intelligence estimates that say there is no way to overcome the fundamental differences of opinion because the opening position of the Palestinians is maximalist in scope. Intelligence experts say declaration of an independent Palestinian state as a matter of time, and are of the opinion that Arafat will not be able to postpone it for a second time if no agreement is reached. The gaps between the sides are too wide, especially on the issue of borders and the division of the West Bank, and that no agreement will be possible.

Barak is being advised to change the Israeli approach: Instead of opposing the declaration of a Palestinian state and seeing it as a threat, he should try to make the best of it. Israel should recognize the new state and immediately launch negotiations with it over the border between the two countries. Bill Clinton can get his long-awaited Nobel Prize as the reviver of Palestinian independence and will therefore support the process.