THEIR opening positions worlds apart, their peoples cynical and pessimistic, their confidence in each other shattered by the gunfire of less than a fortnight ago, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators sat down last night for one final effort to prevent another descent into Middle East bloodshed.
The consequences of failure were underlined by the deaths of 60 Palestinians and IS Israelis in the late September violence here. Some of the worst fighting took place 10 days ago at the very venue for last night's opening session, the Erez border crossing between Gaza and Israel. And not a Palestinian worker, nor barely a truck, has crossed into Israel since as a consequence.
But despite this grim reminder of the stakes, and the presence of the US Secretary of State, Mr Warren Christopher, to press for compromise and common sense, there is still little room for optimism.
As the two teams sat face to face last night, they weren't even agreed on what they were talking about the Palestinians have been instructed to discuss only the implementation of existing accords; the Israelis to seek changes in the security arrangements that are an integral part of those accords.
The talks are set to continue without interruption until agreement is finalised on Israel's overdue troops withdrawal from Hebron and a host of other issues. There are reports that President Clinton, at his crisis summit in Washington last week, imposed a 45 day deadline on the negotiations. But even so distant a target date for a deal looks unlikely given the conflicting demands of the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Israel is seeking a host of new provisions regarding the Hebron redeployment, including the establishment of various demilitarised buffer zones and restriction on the weapons Palestinian police may carry. These new conditions, the Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, said yesterday, were essential in the wake of the recent gun battles.
The Palestinians, meanwhile, insist on an immediate, non negotiable Israeli pull out from Hebron, as agreed when the Oslo B accord was signed on September 28th, 1995. "We will not reopen the agreement for any modification," said Mr Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiatior.
It will fall to Mr Christopher, present for last night's opening session, and to his Middle East co ordinator, Mr Dennis Ross, who will stay for as long as the talks continue, to somehow reconcile these apparently irreconcilable positions. The rather desperate semantic formula appears to be that the accords themselves are not being renegotiated, merely the details of their implementation.
But however ingenious the semantics, clever wording will not be enough to save the peace process. As Mr Uri Savir, the former Israeli Foreign Ministry director general who helped negotiate the accords in 1994 and 1995 observed yesterday, the root question is whether Mr Netanyahu is genuinely prepared to implement a deal he dislikes but is formally bound to.
And, although Mr Netanyahu reiterated his commitment to the accords yesterday, he has been issuing such reiterations since taking office without doing anything.
"There's something a little strange about these new negotiations," Mr Savir noted with some understatement. "After all, the Hebron deal has already been signed, and it was negotiated with deep army involvement."
The army, Mr Savir implied, is content with the security arrangements, and there is thus no real need for further talks, just for a decision to go ahead from the Prime Minister. As the tabloid Ma'ariv put it yesterday, Mr Netanyahu has reached "the moment of truth".