Mr. Clinton himself will go, for the first time, officials believe, to the Gaza Strip to preside over the Palestinian meeting that amends the Palestinian charter.

It won a hard commitment from the Palestinian leader, Yasir Arafat, to eliminate all references to Israel's destruction from the Palestinian national charter.

Mr. Hanegbi distorts facts when he contends that the deadline for amending the Palestinian charter is March 20, or two months after the Palestinian elections.

To round out their position, the Israelis demanded further revisions of the Palestinian national charter and a reduction of the Palestinian police forces.

Mr. Arafat called the Labor Party decision a result of the changes in the Palestinian charter.

The previous day's amendment of the Palestinian charter helped Netanyahu with the Israeli public, but his own coalition was a much harder crew to convince.

Mr. Arafat, in a series of talks today and tonight, moved some way toward meeting Israeli demands on the revision of the Palestinian charter and further security cooperation.

He is to speak at what the Palestinians are describing as an historic meeting to formally revoke anti-Israel clauses in the 1964 Palestinian charter.

Yasir Arafat pledged today to convene the Palestinian parliament-in-exile to eliminate sections of the Palestinian charter that call for the destruction of Israel.

And the fact is we were there to witness the revocation of that part of the Palestinian charter that called for the destruction of Israel.