Secretary of State Hillary Clinton developed cold feet once they took the trouble of visiting the hot spots in the region.

Both have excused themselves for the moment saying they would prefer to wait until a new government is sworn in by Tel Aviv. But the fact remains that seldom before has Israel needed the diplomatic weapon called peace as badly as it does now. Yet a far right strident coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu is to take over from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Netanyahu has been known as a hawk who through the run up to the polls reiterated his position by asserting that the three-week long strike by Israel in Gaza strip should not have stopped as it did on January 18 through a tenuous ceasefire.

And amid such jingoism his Likud party could wrest 27 seats for the next Knesset, one short of centrist Kadima led by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livini in Olmert's team. After the February 10 elections in Israel, Livini has refused to be wooed by Netanyahu affirming that she would prefer to sit in with the opposition, possibly as its leader, as Netanyahu readies himself to take up the onerous task of prime minister. This became possible through the support of Avigdor Lieberman and his Yisrael Beiteinu Party, known for its extreme nationalist views based on Arabs and Palestinians living in Israeli controlled territories to swear loyalty to Israel or face expulsion. Lieberman's party came third after Kadima and Likud in the February polls.
Tinkering to forge new political formations out of fractured poll verdict is not only the case with Israel. Earlier polls held in Palestine brought Hamas to the centrestage marginalising Fatah like never before. The two parties could not come together and, thus, amid what looked like nights of long knives took controls of their strongholds. So Gaza is now run by Hamas and West Bank by Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas under what came to be known as Palestinian Authority.

Both Israel and U.S. have been showing willingness to deal with Abbas while calling Hamas and its leaders as terrorists. Obama's administration has been maintaining a stand where talks with Hamas would be possible only if it recognises Israel and gives up its love for violence. Egypt, which could broker a fragile truce between Israel and Hamas ending strikes on Gaza on January 18, has also been trying to bring Fatah and Hamas together.

But these efforts have thus far not succeeded. Moreover, Hamas has also thwarted Egyptian efforts to release an Israeli soldier, 22-year-old Gilad Shalit, in exchange for certain Palestinians taken prisoners by Tel Aviv in cross border skirmishes as also without them. Gilad Shalit is being held captive by Hamas after being seized from the outskirts of Gaza nearly three years ago. Israeli negotiators have packed up from Cairo, prompting Olmert to say that the soldier's issue would be dealt with by the new government of Netanyahu, indicating that the vexed Middle East situation may again take an ominous turn next month when the new regime gets ensconced in Tel Aviv. Netanyahu is now only too keen to forge a broad-based coalition government by including Kadima as well and has sought two more weeks for this from President Shimon Peres.

Yet positions are not as soft as to give peace a chance. Not just this, more assaults are feared by poor and defenceless inhabitants of the region.

Netanyahu has already made his intention to topple Hamas in Gaza known. And if this is meant to show preference for Fatah then it is indeed a U-turn from what the extreme right wing Israelis did in the past. They had befriended certain ostensibly devout yet power seeking elements among Palestinians who did not take long to pick up guns and turn themselves into an outfit that in time called itself as Hamas. This is what a British journalist Alan Hart has indicated in his recent book Zionism: The Real Enemy of Jews. Hart has had long stints in Middle East. He had been friendly with Israeli leader Golda Meir and has also been privy to certain disclosures she wanted to be made to him before anybody else but only after her death.

Today both Hamas and Likud along with its allies have a common mission. And this precisely is to rob Middle East of its chance for peace. People from all across the world have been yearning for this peace. The change of administration in Washington has once again brought this promise. Hillary Clinton and Mitchell's visits to Tel Aviv and Ramallah have been meant to keep this hope alive as also the Clinton offer of $900 million in aid to the beleaguered Palestinians.

Yet, the stronger the desire for peace gets in world capitals, the more bleak turn the events take in Middle East. Gaza is a stark sign of this. The failed negotiations in Cairo are another indication. The fist clenching by Netanyahu alongside efforts to forge a broad- based nationalist ruling coalition in Israel as also the brandishing of guns by the masked men of Hamas through the countdown to the changeover in Tel Aviv are, indeed, too scary to be visualised and is being weighed not just by Palestinians or Arabs but also people throughout the world. This is more so for those who long for peace and wish its rewards to reach the poor inhabitants of an unfortunate and embattled land.

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