It is said that Palestinians have lost all faith in the peace process. That is not surprising. There is no peace in the occupied territories nor reason to hope that it is even on the distant horizon. For all President Bush’s brave words, the road map is dead in the water. It does not matter who is Palestinian prime minister — Ahmed Qorei or Mahmoud Abbas — the hope of peace is a delusion. The reality will be more suicide bombs and more Israeli attacks on Palestinians. The Americans cannot stop the cycle of violence and killing; Arab governments cannot stop it, nor can Palestinian or Israeli moderates. The only people who can break it are the Israeli government and the Palestinian militants — and neither is interested. Intransigence, intimidation and violence are their passports to power.

It is easy enough to say that Ariel Sharon is the root of the problem. It is certainly true that there is no hope of peace while Sharon remains prime minister, but the problem is far bigger than that. If he dropped dead tomorrow, another stick-wielding, hate-breathing, bunker-minded, hard-line nationalist would take his place. Until there is an Israeli prime minister who has the vision to see that Israel’s best security lies in living in harmony alongside the Palestinians rather than trying to smash them into submission, until there is a prime minister who has the courage to give back to the Palestinians what has been stolen from them, there is no chance of peace.

As for the US, the fact that it can invade Iraq and force regime change there would seem to contradict anyone who claimed that it is powerless to deal with the Israelis. But the reality is that Israel is too complex, too hot an issue for any US administration. Many presidents have tried, all have failed. It is going to happen again; with the peace process going nowhere, President Bush is now clearly beginning to disengage from the Middle East.

There is every reason then to be depressed and bitter — and not just about Palestine, or even Iraq. The second anniversary of Sept. 11 sees the world more dangerous than ever. The murder of the Swedish foreign minister; fresh violence in Colombia; stalemate inside the WTO summit and violence and hate outside; a call, supposedly by Osama Bin Laden’s deputy, to the people of Pakistan to topple President Pervez Musharraf; continuing violence in Liberia — all show that that conflict is anything but a regional problem. There are glimmers of hope, such as the impromptu exchange of apologies in Belgrade this week by the Serbian and Croatian presidents for the evils committed by their citizens in the 1991-95 war between the two countries. But this is an exception. Violence, despair and hatred are rampant worldwide. Peace and justice are things we can only dream about.