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 main West Bank Palestinian cities.

ECONOMIST: Taking a harder line

And Mr Netanyahu still refuses to stop building settlements in the West Bank, the main bit of a future Palestinian state.

ECONOMIST: Israel and Palestine

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 West Bank, the main bit of the Palestinians' would-be state.

ECONOMIST: Israeli politics