several times the number of Israeli losses, but it put the "Palestinian problem" back on the Israeli and international agenda.
57 The October 1973 war, which commenced with the surprise initial successes of the Egyptian and Syrian forces and ended with their defeat, convinced Yasser Arafat and his close associates that the realization of Palestinian national aspirations by military means was impossible. He decided to create a political option that would lead to an agreement with Israel and enable the Palestinians, through negotiations,to establish an independent state in at least a part of the country.
58 To prepare the ground for this, Arafat initiated contact with Israeli personalities who could influence public opinion and government policy. His emissaries (Said Hamami and Issam Sartawi) met with Israeli peace pioneers, who at the end of 1975 established the "Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace".
59 These contacts, which gradually became more extensive, as well as the growing Israeli fatigue with the Intifada, the official Jordanian disengagement from the West Bank, the changing international situation (the collapse of the Communist Bloc, the Gulf War) led to the Madrid Conference and, later, to the Oslo Agreement.
60 The Oslo Agreement had positive and negative features.
61 On the positive side, the agreement brought Israel to its first official recognition of the Palestinian people and its national leadership, and brought the Palestinian national movement to its recognition of the existence of Israel. In this respect, the agreement - and the exchange of letters that preceded it - was of paramount historical significance.
62 In effect, the agreement gave the Palestinian national movement a territorial base on Palestinian soil, the structure of a "state in the making" and