The new effort by the US to forge peace in the Middle East will get under way on Sunday. Unveiled by the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, on Monday, it was politely welcomed by Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Mr Powell's new envoy, retired marine general Anthony Zinni, and his State Department partner, Mr William Burns, are due in the region.
Mr Powell says both Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, and the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, have pledged to work to foster a ceasefire after 14 months of intifada conflict. Mr Sharon has indicated that he and his Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, will head a team to liaise with the Americans; Mr Arafat has apparently agreed to set up a similar panel.
In essence, Mr Powell's speech represented a reaffirmation of Mr Bill Clinton's "bridging proposals" for a permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, unveiled in the final weeks of his term as president, after the failure of the summer 2000 Camp David summit: A full Israeli withdrawal from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the dismantling of the settlements there; a Palestinian state in those areas - with most Palestinian refugees housed there, rather than inside Israel; and, although the secretary was not specific on this, a division of Jerusalem along logical demographic lines, with Arab-populated areas coming under Palestinian control and Jewish areas remaining under Israeli sovereignty.
Mr Sharon is ideologically opposed to many of those principles - including a full West Bank withdrawal, the evacuation of the settlers and the division of Jerusalem. That he nevertheless formally welcomed the speech was partly because Mr Powell refrained for specifying a Jerusalem formula, partly because the prime minister saw no reason to further strain his ties with the United States, but most of all, Mr Sharon's aides acknowledge, because the secretary placed almost all of the "short-term onus" on Mr Arafat.
Barely six weeks ago, a bitter Mr Sharon was publicly warning the Bush administration not to abandon Israel and "appease the Arabs" in its wider war on international terror. Yesterday, relieved at the absence of unpleasant surprises in Mr Powell's speech, and well aware of the growing antipathy on Capitol Hill for Mr Arafat and the intifada, the prime minister and his colleagues felt sufficiently emboldened to announce that, in defiance of the US, they intend to keep Israeli forces deployed for at least a few more days on Palestinian territory in Jenin - the last of the West Bank cities where they are maintaining a military presence - while also retaining a heavy blockade around many other cities.
Mr Powell urged Israel to stop causing innocent Palestinians the indignities and humiliations of road-blocks and closures; Israeli officials are adamant these are security precaution to prevent new attacks by militants.
Defying Mr Powell's call for a halt to settlement activity, Israeli officials also announced yesterday that several mobile homes of settlers in both Hebron and the Gaza Strip were being replaced with permanent structures - because the buildings were no longer safe.
In the Gaza town of Rafah, Israeli tanks and bulldozers demolished at least four homes, leaving their occupants homeless, and badly damaged a dozen more. Three Palestinians were reported injured by Israeli fire in the incursion - Palestinian gunmen fired on the Israelis, who used tank shells and other weaponry -- which Israel said was prompted by gunfire in the area.