The conference on the Middle East announced by Mr Tony Blair yesterday in Ramallah looks like a damp squib when put alongside Mr Ariel Sharon's confirmation later in Jerusalem that Israel will not attend. But it can be a useful first step towards rebuilding the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, as Mr Mahmoud Abbas said on behalf of the Palestinian leadership, if it restates some of the basic principles on which that should be constructed.
This should include the need for Israel to halt settlement activity on the occupied West Bank just as much as for the Palestinians to bring a halt to terrorism against Israeli targets. The great uncertainty is whether this opportunity will be grasped.
International conditions for reopening the peace process have substantially improved. Following President Bush's re-election he has repeatedly stated his commitment to finding a two-state resolution of the conflict as an essential part of bringing democracy to the Middle East as a whole. Mr Blair claims to have influenced this shift in US policy, thereby justifying his close relationship with the Bush administration.
Mr Bush needs to improve relations with European leaders if he is to disengage from Iraq next year and knows they will insist on progress in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in return.
This opens up the prospect of reviving the Quartet negotiations involving the US, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia which were kicked to touch earlier this year.
Political changes in Israel and the Palestinian Authority should reinforce this prospect. Mr Sharon has just reached agreement with the Labour party for a new coalition on the basis of support for his plan to withdraw from Gaza. While Labour is much the weaker partner in this endeavour, it does support linking the withdrawal to the Quartet talks.
The death of Yasser Arafat opens the way for the election of a new Palestinian leadership on January 9th, similarly pledged to reopen these talks.
The coincidence of these events will make it more difficult for Mr Sharon to maintain any underlying strategy of withdrawing unilaterally from Gaza the better to reinforce Israeli control of the West Bank through the creation of apartheid-style Bantustans there, which Israel would effectively control even if they were to be called a Palestinian state.
International pressure must be directed towards ensuring that this new opportunity for a settlement is based on a much more equitable basis than that.