The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, chose yesterday to visit the largest Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank and declare that his country would not be "suckers" over territory disputed with the Palestinians.
In a highly symbolic visit yesterday to Ma'aleh Adumim, the biggest West Bank settlement, where there are plans for major expansion, Mr Netanyahu explained: "We want peace, but we want real peace. We're not suckers." He would carry out the West Bank troop withdrawal, he said, but only if the Palestinians honoured their security pledges.
Meanwhile, in Washington the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, said that, while there had been no breakthrough in the Middle East, the US would "keep making sure that the process moves forward".
She spoke to reporters after conferring with the US Middle East envoy, Mr Dennis Ross, when he returned to Washington after his four-day visit to the region. Ms Albright said Mr Ross had reported "some progress". "Ambassador Ross went out there with some ideas in order to try and narrow the gap, and there has been some progress as a result of his most recent trip," she said. "But it's not nearly enough, I think, for us to say there has been a breakthrough."
The State Department's spokesman, Mr James Rubin, is now talking publicly about the possibility of the Clinton Administration, which has brokered Israeli-Palestinian peace talks for more than four years, "disengaging" from the process. Mr Ross failed to make headway despite four lengthy meetings with Mr Netanyahu.
Yet Mr Netanyahu yesterday insisted there was no crisis, and said Mr Ross "didn't leave us empty-handed. We gave each other some very good ideas, what I would call bridging proposals."
After a negotiating deadlock that has lasted a full year, Mr Ross was seeking to persuade Mr Netanyahu to hand over another 13 per cent of the West Bank to Mr Arafat's control. But Mr Netanyahu flatly rejected the US proposal. Indeed, it is understood that he refused to so much as discuss with Mr Ross the precise scope of the withdrawal he was prepared to sanction.
Instead, the Israeli Prime Minister is first demanding that the Palestinians honour a series of signed security commitments, designed to protect Israel from Islamic extremist violence.
Mr Netanyahu's tough line guaranteed him a rousing reception at Ma'aleh Adumim. But it has gone down less well with the Americans. On his return from Africa, President Clinton is set to debrief Mr Ross and consult other officials about how to proceed.
The Administration is conscious that its standing in the Middle East is being badly eroded by its failure to bind Israel to commitments under the Oslo accords, but it is also well aware of Mr Netanyahu's strong support on Capitol Hill.