Hours after Israel and the Palestinians accept a call to restart direct peace talks, politicians on both sides spoke of pitfalls ahead, warning that negotiations will be stillborn unless Israel stops building in West Bank settlements.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to embrace the summit call made on Friday by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In an official statement he noted with satisfaction that her statement made no mention of Palestinian demands that talks be contingent on Israel (Occupied Palestine) extending a temporary freeze on Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.
But a leader of the left-wing opposition in the Israeli parliament said the latest initiative would go the way of other efforts, which petered out over the years, unless Netanyahu and the hardliners on which his coalition government leans are ready to pay more than lip-service to Palestinian aspirations.
Israeli public radio quoted Haim Oron, of the Meretz party, as praising the United States for showing "initiative and assertiveness" in nudging the two sides back to the negotiating table after a 20-month hiatus, but he added a caveat.
"Without (Israel) continuing a total freeze on settlement and a genuine readiness to withdraw to the international borders and an end to offering the Palestinians a caricature of a state it will be a waste of everybody's time," he said.
Leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) voted early on Saturday to accept the US invitation, but even as an aide to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas read out the decision of the policymaking executive committee, senior delegate Saeb Erekat issued a warning.
"Unless the Israeli government stops settlement and stops demolishing homes in (Israeli-occupied) east Jerusalem we shall not be able to continue the talks," he told reporters.
The Hamas movement ruling the Gaza Strip called it a bid "to fool the Palestinian people."