Yesterday marked the 13th anniversary of the outbreak of what must now be called the "first" Palestinian intifada, the six-year popular uprising that ultimately led Israel to enter negotiations with the PLO and participate in what became the Oslo peace process.
The current "second" intifada gathered new force yesterday, on a violent anniversary that ended with at least six Palestinians and three Israelis dead.
This second uprising is being hailed by some Palestinians as the path to eventual independent statehood throughout Gaza and on all the West Bank and Jerusalem territory captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 war.
But while there is growing pressure from the Israeli left for an accord along just such lines, mainstream sentiment is moving in the other direction, away from compromise.
The day's first fatalities were an Israeli schoolteacher - a mother of six - and her driver, shot dead by Palestinian gunmen as they made their way to a school in the settlement of Kiryat Arba, near Hebron. News of the attack came as the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, was meeting the same pro-peace delegation of bereaved Israeli parents.
Mr Barak castigated the killers for their "cowardice" and promised to seek a negotiated solution with the Palestinians once the violence had abated.
But his prime ministerial days are probably numbered, with the still-undeclared opposition candidate, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, leading him by close to 20 per cent, with elections tentatively scheduled for late next spring.
Throughout the day the death toll rose: a Palestinian teenager shot dead in Bethlehem, another in Jerusalem amid clashes following prayers and, as night fell, four more Palestinians in Jenin, in the West Bank.
Palestinian officials said the four, members of the Force 17 security apparatus, were fired upon by an Israeli tank. Israel's initial response was that soldiers believed the men were about to carry out a bombing attack.
Another Israeli was killed when Palestinian gunmen opened fire at an Israeli bus near the Allenby Bridge crossing into Jordan last night.