This is amply seen in Israel's expanding settlements (to produce a de facto situation where illegal can be presented as being inalterable and so legal); protracted foot dragging on agreements and accords (with no intention to fulfil obligations); continuing occupation of Palestinian lands; violent suppression of resistance. Under cover of a "peace process", Israel has pushed a strategy of acquiring under duress Palestinian acquiescence to occupation, settlements, and expulsion - wrenching escalating concessions from the dispossessed.

The peace process has in effect become a protracted and tortuous exorcise in a futile bid to lend a perverted legitimacy to the Israeli strategy to get the victim's consent to torture and surrender of rights. To pretend surprise and shock at desperate acts (the so-called suicide bombings) fuelled by monumental anger and frustration is a kind of cynical hypocrisy. What has been lacking is not rhetoric but a genuine commitment to a just and fair deal on the part of the "peace brokers" led by the United States. What is astounding is that this charade of peace process has been allowed to go on for so long even allowing for the evolved fact that the closest supporters of Palestinian rights are so timid, divided, and selfish.

All parties have responsibility. Before the cycle of escalation hurtles towards a major catastrophe - a catastrophe that is eminently avoidable and should have been averted long ago- Israel must abandon its vision of Greater Israel meaning total capitulation of Palestinian aspiration, permanent expulsion of Palestinian population from their ancestral lands.