MIDDLE EAST: Bombings will delay, not deter, the new initiative, writes Deaglán de Bréadún from Jerusalem.
The latest suicide bomb in Jerusalem has put a meeting between President Yasser Arafat and Vice-President Dick Cheney in doubt.
Prior to that bomb, it was anticipated that the highest level of contact so far between the Palestinians and the current US administration would take place within days.
Mr Cheney had offered to meet Mr Arafat provided a ceasefire was in place.
The location for the meeting would probably have been Cairo. All this is up in the air, at time of writing.
But regardless of whether the meeting takes place, there has been a perceptible shift in US policy with a more vociferous commitment to a Palestinian state and a greater willingness to intervene in the conflict before it deteriorates into all-out war.
The policy shift has been gaining momentum for some time and was seen most dramatically in the US-sponsored resolution at the Security Council on March 12th, which for the first time in recent decades outlined "a vision of a region where two states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side within secure and recognised borders".
Ireland was one of the 14 members of the Security Council which voted for the potentially-historic Resolution 1397.
Ireland has been more active than most members in pushing Middle East issues on the Security Council.
But its efforts were constantly overshadowed by the possibility of a veto by the US, which had a long-standing position that the council had no business meddling in the Middle East.
The traditional US view about the UN's role had been succinctly expressed by a former US ambassador, who said: "The Security Council is the place at which a solution to the problem of the Middle East will arrive. It is not the place from which it will depart."
There was a flurry of diplomacy prior to the Security Council vote. US diplomats at the UN came up with the original idea and "sold" it to their colleagues in the State Department, principally the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell. Senior political sources said "Powell himself quickly became convinced and enthusiastic".
But the final green light was given only on the evening of March 12th when Mr Powell was contacted by telephone as he attended a function.
By that stage, Mr Cheney had already started his Middle East tour, with Jordan's King Abdullah emphasising the need for the US to act as a broker in the conflict.
The US move caught the rest of the UN system by surprise.
But it was in line with Mr Powell's widely-publicised speech at the University of Louisville last November 19th.
Signalling a more assertive and interventionist US policy, he accused Israel of crippling chances for peace with the Palestinians by building settlements on the West Bank and in Gaza.
Israel's opposition to multilateral involvement in the conflict had reinforced the old "arm's-length" approach by the US.
However, as one diplomat put it, "with the increasing deterioration on the ground, it was wearing very thin".
On the evening of March 12th, the US dropped its bombshell, introducing a draft resolution.
In direct negotiations with the Palestinian delegate, the Americans agreed to put in a paragraph on the "vision" of the two states living side by side.
The Palestinians were delighted and urged a unanimous vote, but the most Syria would do was abstain.
At the end of the day (literally, at two minutes to midnight) the text was adopted as resolution 1397, by 14 votes in favour to one abstention.
Only the Israeli delegation was told in advance, shortly before the evening consultations - but too late for them to take any action to stop it, had they so wished.
There were a number of factors in the US decision, but it had become clear that Mr Cheney's tour of the Middle East was already running into big trouble, the reports of fighting were getting more and more disturbing, the US peace envoy Gen Zinni had to be sent back, and this time it had to be made clear that the US was serious about its efforts to reach a solution.
Next week's Beirut summit of Arab leaders is likely to discuss the so-called "Saudi initiative" for Arab recognition of Israel within its 1967 borders.
The issue could then possibly return to the Security Council.
The ice has been broken, the US is now taking a very high profile as a peace-broker (albeit for warlike reasons, as far as Iraq is concerned).
And the Security Council is back centre-stage in the Middle East.