Israeli regime and the Palestinians appear to be as divided as ever over the issue of Israeli illegal settlement building, as US Secretary of State John Kerry arrives on another mission to the region.
Palestinians believe without major pressure on the regime of Israel, the outlook seems bleak.
Kerry's arrival Thursday is the latest in a series of meetings with Israelis and Palestinians over the past two months aimed at getting them back to the negotiating table.
Palestinians said there has been little progress ahead of what they believe to be a June 7 deadline and said they are already beginning work on a "day-after" strategy.
"We don't have unrealistic expectations. We know the immensity of obstacles," said Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian official. "If it doesn't work, of course we have our own plans."
The so-called peace negotiations broke down in late 2008 and have remained stalled since then, in large part due to disputes over Israeli illegal settlement construction in the West Bank and occupied east al-Quds (Jerusalem).
Palestinians want both areas, as well as the Gaza Strip, for their future state, and say there is no point in negotiating while Israel continues to build settlements.
More than 500,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank and east occupied al-Quds.
Palestinians say that makes it increasingly difficult to share the land with Israel.
The Israeli settlements are considered illegal by the UN and most countries because the territories they are built on were captured by Israel in a 1967 war and are hence seen as being subjected to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.
Israel agreed to freeze settlement construction under the Roadmap for Peace plan in 2002, but it has failed to fulfill that commitment despite repeated and widespread international condemnation.
When President Barack Obama took office in 2009, he took a tough line against the settlements and prodded Israel into a partial construction freeze. A short-lived round of negotiations quickly collapsed, and Israel refused to extend the freeze.
Fed up with the impasse and disappointed with Obama, the Palestinians last fall won recognition from the UN General Assembly as a nonmember state, an upgraded diplomatic status that gives them access to key UN bodies. The US was one of just eight countries that sided with Israel in opposing the bid.
Israel fears the Palestinians will now seek membership in international agencies to promote an anti-Israel agenda. Its biggest concern is that the Palestinians will try to join the International Criminal Court and press war crimes charges against Israel.