The renewed talks of final-status arrangement, land exchange, dividing Jerusalem, and the right of return, and the familiar faces of Abu Ala and Saeb Erekat with the documents and maps evoke a sharp sense of deja vu. As though nothing has happened since the failure of the peace process and the eruption of the intifada in the Fall of 2000. As though the political negotiations are being conducted in a parallel universe, cut off from reality.

But this is an illusion: the negotiations in the autumn of 2007 are being held in a very different political and strategic environment from those of the previous round.

First, the parameters for an Israeli-Palestinian final status arrangement - presented by former President Bill Clinton at the end of his term - fixated the framework for the conflict's solution in the international consciousness. Every agreement between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will be compared to Clinton's plan, to see who conceded and who gained.