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For all their epic conflict, Israelis and Palestinians often find the same things funny; sarcasm in particular. So many on both sides would have assumed that the US president Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize award was a sarcastic joke. The two adversaries are the centrepiece of Mr Obama’s 10-month career as an international peacemaker, but if anything they are closer to war than to peace.

Mr Obama has certainly not been deterred by failure thus far. His envoy, George Mitchell, is in the region pressing the two sides to begin final-status negotiations, but there is little belief on either side that a peace agreement is possible. Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, declared that any attempt to reach a final settlement for years to come is...