During these secret negotiations, Norway's role as a facilitator and communicator was very important. Norway provided the parties with a back channel, and as Hirshfeld states, "we could not have started without anyone to help us". Norway offered facilitation without attempting to meditate; the Norwegian never took part in the negotiations (exceptduring the meeting in Stockholm and during the talks on mutual recognition). Furthermore, the Norwegian provided "political relevance" in the initial stages of negotiations, allaying the Palestinian negotiations ' concern about the political authority of the unofficial Israeli negotiations (I.e., Hirshfeld and Pundik). The Palestinians knew that Director General Egeland and the diplomat Mona Juul were reporting about the talks to Beilin (Beilin1994;Hirshfeld1994b; Pedersan 1994; Pundik 1995). Moreover, the Norwegians not only provided the parties with negotiations setting but arranged where and when subsequent meeting would take place. During these secret back-channel negotiations there were no direct telephone links between Israel and Tunisia; hence the Norwegian become the "go-between", with extensive telephone contact between the negotiations sessions.