Several Harvard professors are pessimistic about the chance for peace in the Middle East--despite the signing of the Wye River Memorandum on October 23.

The latest agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority contains few new commitments, but rather fresh promises to honor old concessions on both sides.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to allow the Palestinians full control over 13 percent of the West Bank and to release 750 convicted Palestinian prisoners.

Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority will arrest 30 Palestinians suspected of murder, reduce its police force of 40,000 to the previously agreed-upon limit of 30,000 and rescind the 26 clauses in the Palestinian National Covenant that call for the destruction of the Jewish state.

Professors' opinions ranged from skepticism about the potential for peace to disappointment with the leaders over particular concessions.

Doubts About Progress

"The agreement is the absolute minimum that was necessary," said Professor of the History of Science Everett I. Mendelsohn, who is also an affiliate of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

"It comes late and after a great deal of breakdown of communication," he added.

Professor of the History of Religion and Islamic Studies William A. Graham echoed Mendelsohn, saying his reaction to the Wye agreement was "largely disappointment."

"I'm happy an agreement was reached but I have very little optimism that it's going to produce a just settlement," Graham said.

Professor of Yiddish Literature and of Comparative Literature Ruth R. Wisse offered a similarly negative prognosis for peace.

"I'm quite sure there won't be any progress [in the wake of Wye]," she said.

Wisse expressed doubts about the formula thus far engaged by Netanyahu of ceding territory in exchange for promises of peace from the Palestinians.

"Peace will come to the Middle East when the Arabs learn to yield land and the Jews learn how to hold onto it," Wisse said.

"I don't think that Israel can solve the problem of the Palestinians--not with any amount of land," she added.