WITH Israeli-Palestinian relations at a nadir, and war clouds looming on the Israeli Syrian front, the US is this week launching a last ditch bid to salvage the Middle East peace process.
The US peace envoy, Mr Dennis Ross, who made an abortive trip to the region a fortnight ago, is now returning to the Middle East, hopeful that a temporary lull in developments over the Israeli attorney general scandal, which has been preoccupying the Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, of late, might facilitate some progress.
In advance of his talks with Mr Ross, and a planned meeting tomorrow with Israeli President, Mr Ezer Weizman, the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, yesterday travelled to Egypt for consultations with President Mubarak, lamenting on departure from Gaza that the peace process was "completely frozen".
In truth, the situation is actually worse than frozen; an Israeli Foreign Ministry official stated flatly last week that the process was dead.
Ties between the Israelis and the Palestinians have dipped to such a low that one Palestinian intelligence apparatus yesterday accused the Israelis of having carried out two failed suicide bombings in the Gaza Strip last month, in order, it said, to make the Palestinians look bad.
This charge, denied by Israel and ridiculed even by some Palestinian officials, was further undermined by the fact that Palestinian Islamic extremist groups took responsibility for the bombings at the time.
The collapse of Israeli Palestinian reconciliation is also gradually destroying the nascent peace ties between Israel and such moderate neighbours as Morocco, Tunisia, Oman and Qatar.
And as for relations between Israel and Syria, long the most implacable of Middle Eastern enemies, they are now more strained than at any time since the Madrid peace conference of October, 1991, ushered in the era of Israeli Syrian negotiation.
A new initiative for resuming these long suspended talks, proposed by the European Union's Middle East envoy, Mr Miguel Angel Moratinos, who has been visiting Damascus and Jerusalem in recent days, has foundered on the Israeli refusal to countenance a precommitment to an eventual full withdrawal from the Golan Heights.
Israel has recently accused Syria of developing nonconventional weapons, and missiles with the range to deliver them. President Hafez Assad responded last week that the country with nuclear arms - that is, Israel - had no right to throw around allegations about other nations' arms buildups.
At the weekend in Israel, leading army analysts told a military conference that Syria was "preparing a war option".
Taher Shriteh adds from Gaza:
A 25 year old Gazan told a news conference organised by Palestinian security forces yesterday that he was recruited by Israel to get two Muslim militants to carry out suicide attacks in April that killed only the two bombers.
Israel called the allegation "a ridiculous lie".
Mr Ibrahim Halabi said he had collaborated with Israeli Shin Bet intelligence officers who gave him the explosives for the two bombings near the Jewish settlements of Kfar Darom and Netzarim in Gaza Strip on April 1st at Erez border point.
The two would be attackers were killed minutes apart when the explosives they were carrying blew up before the arrival of their intended targets - Israeli school buses, said Mr Halabi, who faces trial in a Palestinian court.
Seven Palestinian taxi passengers were wounded in one blast.
"The explosions were at times different than those set, before the targets arrived, in order to avoid any Israeli casualties," Mr Halabi said, suggesting the Shin Bet had rigged the bombs to explode prematurely.
Israel said at the time the two bombers had intended to blow up the school buses.
"This is clearly a ridiculous lie," said Mr Netanyahu's spokesman in a statement.
"Israel expects the Palestinian Authority to wage a real battle against terrorism as it promised. Such ... fabrications do not reflect a serious intention to fight against terrorism and against the organisational infrastructure behind it," he said.