and rabin said, "but clearly, the israeli public is not prepared for that now." that hit me like a hammer. i always had this notion drilled into me that if only the arabs were to reach out and be willing to live in peace with israel, that would be the time of the messiah. and the messiah came, and the israeli leadership said, "no, public opinion is not ready for that." and i wrote a piece then in "moment" magazine -- if you recall, it was published by leonard fein -- and he made it a cover story, and the title was, "for the sake of zion, i will not remain silent." and that triggered my re-examination of things i had been told and what was going on on the ground. >> prior to that, your sense had always been that if the arabs reached out, there would be two states -- palestine and israel. >> i had no doubt about that. i mean, that was, you know, just a given, that we are sharing. the resolution said, you know, two states. the resolution, which israel -- the partition resolution, which israel invoked in its declaration of independence, planted, rooted its legitimacy