In peace moves understandably overshadowed by the focus on Pope John Paul's historic visit to the Holy Land, Israel yesterday handed over another 6.1 per cent slice of the West Bank to Palestinian control, the two sides resumed intensive peace talks in Washington, and hopes grew of progress on the Israeli-Syrian peace track.
It would have been very easy - and no great surprise - for these positive developments to have been swept aside, because there has been a spate of violence here in the past two days. A Palestinian woman was shot dead at an Israeli army roadblock on Monday, soon after three Israelis had been shot and injured near Hebron, with the two incidents leaving the Israelis and Palestinians fuming at each other.
And a soldier in the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army was killed yesterday by Hizbullah guerrillas in south Lebanon, fuelling Israeli anger at the failure of the Lebanese and Syrians to rein in Hizbullah.
But instead of allowing the violence to disrupt peace moves, Israeli and Palestinian security officers exchanged maps, shook hands and supervised an orderly Israeli withdrawal from West Bank territory near Nablus, Ramallah and Hebron yesterday morning, and both Israeli and Syrian officials expressed fresh hopes of progress towards a peace treaty between them.
It is, as ever, the Americans who have catalysed these latest tentative moves forward. In the final months of his presidency, President Bill Clinton is making every effort to help the Israelis and Palestinians meet their September deadline for a full peace treaty. Hence the US is hosting an anticipated week of intensive negotiations that began yesterday outside Washington.
Similarly, Mr Clinton is trying to beat the clock on the Syrian front. His announcement on Monday that he will meet Syria's President Assad in Geneva this coming weekend has been warmly received in both Damascus and Jerusalem, with leaders in both countries expressing the hope that formal peace talks - broken off two months ago - will resume.
Some Israeli and American sources believe that a peace treaty could be just a few weeks away; others, though, fear that the moment of truth may have passed - that President Assad, 69 and ailing, may not be prepared to gamble on a dramatic reconciliation with Israel or that he may have concluded that Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, lacks the necessary public support to get a peace treaty approved.