It may be too early to judge if the Sharm el-Sheikh summit will indeed herald a new stage in the tangled Israeli-Palestinian relationship. Yet a number of things have already been achieved. After almost four years of total rupture, Israeli and Palestinian leaders have met; Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's president, who for years has avoided contacts with Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister, has not only invited him to Egypt but hailed him as the key to peace. Given the dismal picture of violence, fear and hatred of the past few years, the fact that both leaders agreed to a cessation of violence is a big change.

What is so significant is that this has not been achieved through US or European Union mediation but because of the emergence of local will on the part of the two main participants, Israel and the Palestinians, to move from confrontation to a new relationship.