xxxii_ The Crooked Course Territories and Personal Representative to the PLO and the Palestinian Authority at our new headquarters in Gaza city. The PLO had regained its uncontested leadership, and the Palestinian Authority received a massive financial boost with the influx of donor money from across the world. Israel received a moral boost as a large number of countries formally recognized its existence and established diplomatic relations. A hallmark of the Declaration of Principles was the establishment of a gradual approach to resolving the conflict. Gradualism now became the keyword for describing the peace process. By breaking the overall goal of peace into manageable sections that could be addressed in sequence, the Oslo process allowed for progress to be made and trust to develop on less contentious issues before tackling more controversial topics like Jerusalem, borders, security arrangements, and refugees, which could threaten to derail any talks. One of the principal advantages of the step-by-step or gradualist approach was that it enabled the parties to reach compromises through ongoing dialogue and interaction with each other by starting with the easiest issues and leaving the hardest for last. It allowed for an incremental change in perceptions and political positions. Although gradualism allowed success to be achieved in a variety of areas, moving the process forward, at each stage, depended on the parties taking the bold steps necessary to fulfill their respective commitments. The main weakness was slow movement in implemen- tation, with progress falling behind agreed upon timelines. This led to periodic disillusionment and back-sliding. A recurrent problem was that the parties had failed to agree on a mechanism to penalize non-compliance. This critical deficiency undermined progress. As leaders and the political climate changed, so too did the resolve to implement. Successful gradualism required the use of ambiguous language on the most conten-