Secondly, there is a solid consensus, held by all the Palestinian factions and militias, that the armed resistance will continue inside the occupied territories as long as Israel retains control of six of the mainWestBank Palestinian cities.
But that credibility has been fizzling at home and abroad, since Mr Netanyahu refused to meet the minimal demand of his Palestinian interlocutors (and of Western mediators) that Israel should stop expanding Jewish settlements on the WestBank, the main bit of the Palestinians' would-be state.