As the president mulled Rich's application, he was preoccupied with his final and most ambitious efforts to revive the Mideast peace talks

He was talking virtually every day with Ehud Barak, then Israel's prime minister, trying to persuade the Jewish state's leader to approve concessions to the Palestinians

Echoing Barak's pleas on behalf of Rich were Clinton's old friend Shimon Peres, former Mossad director general Shabtai Shavit, and a host of other important figures in Israel and the American Jewish community.

Rich had long been a financial and intelligence asset of the Jewish state, carrying out missions in many hostile countries where he did business

the last round of serious peace talks opened in Taba, Egypt, on Jan. 21, 2001, the day after he signed the Rich pardon

they came closer to achieving a workable settlement than any before or since

As a lame duck, Clinton had no other means to induce his Israeli partner to take any risk for peace