What will happen now is the usual routine: Israel will try to punish the Palestinians; the Palestinians will complain; Israel will not really punish the Palestinians, because we cannot afford the Palestinian Authority to collapse. So it will be another episode in this never-ending story.
— Shlomo Brom, a researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, speaking to the New York Times following the Israeli government’s announcement that it was halting the latest round of talks aimed at setting up talks to discuss a new pathway to peace in the Holy Land.