Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, on Wednesday appeared to have completed yet another inconsequential trip to the Middle East. Her call on Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, to resume peace talks with Israel – while she still refuses to call for a ceasefire in Gaza – no doubt has a logic. But it is not a logic that will lead to peace.

It is not remotely possible for Israel, however powerful its friends, to make war on half the Palestinian people and expect to make peace with the other half. Israel, arguably, has never pursued a realistic peace settlement. It is, nevertheless, being encouraged by the US and the Europeans to pursue an unrealistic one.