After a day spent listening to Israel's grievances, the Bush Administration's new Middle East envoy Mr Anthony Zinni yesterday heard the Palestinian side of the intifada story, holding talks with the Palestinian Authority President Mr Yasser Arafat, and getting briefed by authority officials on Israeli settlement expansion and military blockades.
While Israeli leaders had asserted that Mr Arafat might lack the ability and certainly lacked the desire to rein in Palestinian militants, the Palestinian leader insisted to Mr Zinni that he was strategically committed to the peace process and was making a "100 per cent effort" to halt extremist violence.
But he reportedly said he was not being helped by the intransigence of the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, who has ruled out any substantive diplomatic contacts until there have been "seven days of quiet." Aides to Mr Arafat have described Mr Sharon's demand as "a cynical ploy," designed to avoid any return to peace talks. Earlier, Mr Arafat issued a statement condemning the killing of two Israeli civilians in Afula and another in Gaza on Tuesday by three Palestinian gunmen, all of whom were themselves shot dead by Israeli troops.
Mr Zinni has said he will remain in the region until he has brokered a ceasefire. Familiarizing himself with the terrain, he and his convoy drove through the West Bank yesterday, witnessing Palestinians walking through fields to avoid Israeli roadblocks and passing through areas of Jewish settlement.
In his talks on Tuesday, he is said to have urged Israel to halt all building at settlements, and to have asked how the Israeli government would want to advance the peace process if a ceasefire was achieved.
The moderate Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, evidently shares the Palestinians' opposition to the demand for a week's quiet, declaring yesterday that this gave "veto power to the extremists." Mr Sharon, who leaves tonight for a US trip that will include talks with President Bush in Washington, retorted that he would not concede "so much as a second" of the seven days.
In the West Bank outside Nablus, Palestinian witnesses alleged that a Jewish settler deliberately ran over and killed a 75-year-old villager, veering to hit the man who had just crossed the road. Israeli police said the man had been hit in the middle of the road in what was apparently an accident.
UN human rights commissioner Ms Mary Robinson said yesterday she supported calls for the creation of a Palestinian state, and said independent monitors should be used to help halt violence in the Middle East.
Pope John Paul, worried about Middle East violence, has summoned Catholic leaders to a summit in two weeks on the future of Christians in the Holy Land, the Vatican said. The meeting will take place at the Vatican on December 13th.