Nine months. That’s the time the United States allotted for the negotiations on a permanent agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. In the course of this short period, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not only have to come to terms with the Palestinians on the final borders, Jerusalem and the refugee problem, and to prepare for the evacuation of tens of thousands of settlers, but also to secure the support of the majority of the Israeli public — or, as far as he is concerned, the majority of the Jewish public — for the agreement, before presenting it for a decision in a national referendum.

This critical time span has been dubbed by experts as the “duality period.” During this short stretch of time, the parties are required to give up symbolic and physical assets, to buy the support of a skeptical or even hostile public on the domestic front and, at the same time, build a culture of peace with a longtime foe. All this, while the signs of the conflict — the occupation, the violence and the incitement — are still present in the field.

The experience of the Oslo process and the disengagement from Gaza shows that at a time like this, the rejectionist front, on the Israeli as well as the Palestinian side, spares no effort to undermine public support for a diplomatic settlement and shatter the public belief in peace. It stops short of nothing — including violence, provocation and incitement — to sabotage the fragile peace process.

If Netanyahu actually plans to call a referendum on the final status agreement in nine months, he should prepare the public for the most dramatic decision taken since the peace agreement with Egypt in 1979, and perhaps even since the 1947 UN resolution on the partition plan.