In the West Bank town of Nablus yesterday, thousands of Palestinians rallied to demand that their leaders insist on a "right of return" for millions of Palestinian refugees to homes inside sovereign Israel. Masked men paraded and fired shots into the air.
Pictures of Mr Dennis Ross, the US peace envoy, whose latest Middle East mission has been postponed indefinitely because there is little desire on either side for negotiation, were set on fire.
A short drive away, a short while later, Gen Ariel Sharon, the leader of Israel's opposition Likud party, who seems likely to become prime minister next month, was setting out maximalist positions of his own.
"There is no real peace without concessions," he acknowledged to his supporters at Jerusalem's International Convention Centre.
But he chose not to outline what these might be.
Instead, he declared that he would not relinquish control of the Jordan Valley, that he would insist on maintaining Israeli "security zones" complete with settlements in the West Bank, that Jerusalem would remain "forever united under Israeli sovereignty" and that there would no readiness on his part to so much as discuss a return for those Palestinian refugees.
Applauding him were not only Likud supporters, but also Knesset members from several other Orthodox, immigrant and right-wing parties that will form the basis of his intended coalition. Mr Mohammad Bassiouny, the Egyptian ambassador to Tel Aviv, currently recalled to Cairo, observed yesterday that Gen Sharon's victory would spell disaster for the region.
But according to Gen Sharon, some members of the Palestinian leadership think differently.
In an interview with an Arabic newspaper in Israel yesterday, he claimed to have been "in contact" with Palestinian leaders recently, "at their initiative", and he also issued improbable praise for Palestinian President Mr Yasser Arafat's leadership. While he would still refuse to shake hands him, he said he would have "no problem" negotiating with him.
It is unlikely that Mr Arafat is overly enamoured with Gen Sharon, but he appears to have given up entirely on the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak. Two of his leading aides, the Information Minister, Mr Yasser Abed Rabbo, and legislator Ms Hanan Ashrawi, yesterday convened a press conference to demand that Mr Barak be tried for war crimes related to the ongoing Intifada, in which some 320 Palestinians and 40 Israelis have been killed.
Mr Barak himself spent much of the day yesterday rebuffing suggestions that he might drop out of the prime ministerial race.