The shadow of the bus-station bombing in Beersheba yesterday hangs over the Middle East talks as the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators continue to trade accusations without moving closer to ending the 19-month impasse in the peace process. The talks in Maryland were due to end on Sunday, but went into an unplanned fifth day yesterday without any hope of a major breakthrough and little sign, if any, of substantive progress on a new interim peace agreement.
At the weekend, Mr Clinton spent 23 hours shuttling between the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, who refused to come face to face. And, emphasising his immense personal investment in ending the 19 months of stalling, Mr Clinton cancelled a number of personal and domestic commitments yesterday to return yet again to the Wye River Plantation for a third consecutive day.
The scale of the task facing the negotiators was underlined by yesterday's grenade attack on a crowded bus station in southern Israel in which 64 people were injured. All parties at the talks - Israelis, Palestinians and Americans - were quick to issue unambiguous condemnations. But for the Israelis - who have been blocking progress in the talks by insisting first on new Palestinian assurances on security - the attack has helped them to excuse their continued obduracy. After the attack, the Israelis called off all negotiations except those on Palestinian anti-terrorism measures and security guarantees, including the arrest and punishment of accused terrorists and the confiscation of illegal weapons.
A US package proposal would link further Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank and other steps extending Palestinian autonomy to tougher Palestinian action. But a key stumbling block Mr Netanyahu and his negotiating partners must address is the Palestinian demand for the release of 3,000 prisoners and Israel's refusal so far to meet its obligation under the Oslo Accords to transfer further parcels of the West Bank to Palestinian control.
Mr Arafat has flatly rejected an Israeli offer of a partial agreement, saying he does not want any "minipackages". But, as if to emphasise his unwillingness to concede anything but the smallest parcels of land, Mr Netanyahu abandoned the talks on Sunday for an open-air meeting with two Jewish settler leaders who had been barred from the Wye River resort by US officials. The presence of the militant settler leaders could only be seen as a provocation to the Palestinian delegation. While Mr Netanyahu was refusing to make concessions to the Palestinians, he gave the appearance of reassuring those who want to annex more West Bank territory for Israeli citizens.
Palestinian negotiators have blamed the new and hardline Israeli Foreign Minister, Gen Ariel Sharon, for the failure so far to reach an agreement. Hardliners in Mr Netanyahu's coalition have appealed to him to break off the summit. Yesterday's bomb was probably the work of a hardline Palestinian who supports Hamas or another Islamic movement. It will have done little to help Mr Arafat and his team of negotiators; but it will strengthen Israeli right-wingers as they place more pressures on Mr Netanyahu to concede as little as possible, if anything.