Israeli and Palestinian security officials are set to meet tonight, under US auspices, for talks that were intended to mark the end of a week-long "period of calm", and the start of a six-week "cooling off" period designed to pave the way for a resumption of substantive peace negotiations.
Instead, if the content of similar meetings in the past few days is anything to go by, the talks will consist of representatives of each side accusing the other of deliberately violating what is still pointlessly referred to as a "cease-fire" - a "cease-fire" that has seen some 15 Palestinians and eight Israelis killed in the three violated weeks of its lifespan.
After more than nine months of Intifada conflict, the recriminations have become entirely personal - with Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, pointing an almost daily finger of blame at the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, and Mr Arafat and his aides responding in kind.
Yesterday, following news of the murder of an Israeli settler in the fields of the Hebron Hills by Palestinian gunmen, Mr Sharon accused "Chairman Arafat" and the PA of "encouraging terror, and instigating acts of terror and murder". Mr Arafat, mourning the death of the latest Palestinian victim - a West Bank taxi driver whom the Israeli army said it shot by mistake because it erroneously believed he was planting a bomb - condemned Mr Sharon and his government for planning large-scale "military action", an apparent reference to the reported decision by key ministers to approve further assassinations of alleged Palestinian militants.
There is one difference between the two sides' reactions, however. While the Palestinian leadership is presenting a united front, Israel's Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, openly opposed to Mr Sharon's determined delegitimisation of Mr Arafat, is sounding increasingly unhappy in the government, and said yesterday that he would leave "if they won't let me follow the foreign policy I believe in". By "they" he means the coalition's right-wing majority, some of whose members want Mr Sharon to declare war on the PA and exile Mr Arafat.
To the frustration of both sides, the US is holding both to blame for the relentless cycle of killings, saying on Monday that the PA was not doing enough "to fight terror" and opposing Israel's "targeted killings".
