Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, due to begin in earnest this week, is a historic moment. What it is not, however, is part of a coherent plan designed to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict, the open wound at the heart of the Middle East crisis. The challenge for the international community, and principally for the US, is to convert this step forward in decolonisation into a process pointing towards peace. There are precious few signs that is happening or likely to happen.

On August 3, for example, James Wolfensohn, the former World Bank president now energetically working to make a success of the Gaza pull-out as a special international envoy, said the two sides "are addressing all the issues they would need to address in a final settlement". In fact, they are addressing none of those issues - Jerusalem, refugees, final borders, the future of the illegal settlements - and that is very much by Israeli design.