The March 2-3 battles marked one of the bloodiest periods in the 17-month Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, that began in late September 2000. Security forces estimate that some 50 Palestinians and 26 Israelis were killed during a two-day rampage that left hundreds injured, with no let up in sight.

"I think the tragic situation should prepare us to continue our search for a solution," Mr. Annan told reporters. "I believe that it is when the killing is going on that it is even more urgent to intensify the search for peace." Previously, Mr. Annan had warned that Israeli attacks on refugee camps were pushing Palestinians and Israelis toward all-out war.

Israeli reprisal raids increased March 4, with missiles fired at a building in Palestinian President Yasser Arafat�s headquarters compound in Rahmallah, on the West Bank. Mr. Arafat was unhurt.

At Final Call presstime, the day�s death toll for Palestinians was 19, including a mother and her three children. But it followed a weekend with a suicide bombing and sniper shooting that killed 22 Israelis.

With angry Palestinians in the streets and Israeli troops�backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, entering refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza as their crackdown continued�the violence seemed unstoppable.

Palestinians and Israelis want peace, it is their leadership that must be convinced now is the time to end violence and start talking, Professor Alon Ben-Meir, a Middle East specialist at the New York University New School for Social Research, told The Final Call.

For 20 years, Mr. Ben-Meir said, he has lectured on the futility of violence in the Middle East, but still the killing continues. "The violence is useless and senseless, but we must understand that both groups have legitimate concerns," he said. Professor Ben-Meir is certain of one thing: "There is only one country that holds the key to solving the problem, and that is the United States."

With its massive political, economic and military support of Israel and global dominance, the United States holds significant power. One-sided use of that power�to the benefit of Israel in the eyes of Arabs�has caused much consternation and anger, observers note.

Phyllis Bennis, of the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies, agrees. "But, the problem is that the U.S. State Department refuses to address the main issue�the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands by Israel. Until President George Bush is willing to address that, the violence continues," she predicted.

If the Bush administration was planning immediate hands-on work to bring the parties to the negotiating table, it was news to the spokesperson for the State Department. "I am not aware of any phone calls set up at this point," Richard Boucher told reporters in Washington, responding to a question about the secretary of state�s plans for the conflict.

The U.S. remains concerned about the situation on the ground, particularly in the Jenin and Bakarta refugee camps, Mr. Boucher said. "We are in touch with the Israeli government, urging that the utmost restraint be exercised in order to avoid harming the Palestinian civilian population," Mr. Boucher said.

Since the present Intifada began, it is estimated that 1,000 Palestinians have been killed.

"One of the most important struggles being waged for freedom and justice in the world is the heroic Palestinian liberation struggle. I think it�s important not only because it�s a small people struggling against a world imperial power whose interest Israel serves�but also because without it, there can be no real peace in the world," said Dr. Maulana Karenga, chairman of California State University-Long Beach Black Studies Department and founder of Us.

Peace can only come with the end of the occupation of Palestine by Israel, establishment of a viable Palestinian state, the return of and compensation for Palestinian refugees and the release of prisoners of war and political prisoners, said Dr. Karenga.

In addition, support is needed to rebuild Palestine and a UN buffer force should be placed between the two sides, he advised.

Self-described moral leaders don�t talk about the oppression of Palestinians, Dr. Karenga continued. "And, in fact, they take trips to Israel. How can they see something so morally wrong and brutal as what�s happening to the people of Israel, and not speak about it? If they represent themselves as spiritual and moral leaders, this is one of the defining and ethical issues of our time�the Palestinians right to liberation and to be free from the brutal and savage occupation by Israel," he concluded.

Complaints about violence are used by the Israeli government, the U.S. and the American media to emasculate a legitimate resistance movement, said Hatem Abudayyeh, of the Arab-American Action Network, a grassroots activist organization.

"The real violence is the Israeli occupation, the continued expropriation of land to build Israeli settlements, the home demolitions, the uprooting of crops and the economic strangulation of the Palestine people. People are tired of living in this state of perpetual conflict," he said.

Palestinians are also fed up with peace proposals from Israel, the United States, their leadership and the Arab world, the activist maintained. "They�ve come to a realization that Israel�s ruling class truly does not want peace with Palestinians," he added.

Still Mr. Abudayyeh does not foresee all-out war, which he says is not in the best interest of Arab regimes, given some peace pacts with Israel, and a lack of resources for war.

According to Agber Dimah, a political science professor at Chicago State University, U.S. involvement in Middle East affairs during the Clinton administration fanned the now intense violence, which has been magnified by the Bush administration�s lack of a hands-on approach.

"The violence will continue without international intervention hosted by the United States or the United Nations. What�s been going on is a tit for tat policy and there�s not much trust from Palestinians or Israelis. The United States should come together and ask, what should be done to bring peace in the Middle East�just as we are doing in seeking out what can be done to bring about the end of terrorism," Mr. Dimah said.

Some observers complain that the world�s only superpower has been reduced to a mere spectator.

"It might be time for nations such as South Africa, or the European Union, to step up to the plate," offered Philip Wilcox, director of the Washington-based Foundation for Middle East Peace. Mr. Wilcox said the UN and the U.S., seem stuck on a broken record of "end the violence and return to the peace talks" without addressing the core issue of the occupation and the return of the Palestinian refugees.

With South Africa�s moral authority and the European Union�s economic ties to Israel, perhaps a new solution could emerge, said Mr. Wilcox.

Ole Peter Kolby, the Norwegian ambassador to the UN and rotating chair of the Security Council for March, told The Final Call that Council members want peace, but don�t have a specific strategy for peace.

Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah�s proposal to end the Arab-Israeli conflict is still on the table but has been badly damaged by the recent violence, some believe.

Prince Abdullah�s plan broadly foresees Pan-Arab normalization of relations with Israel in exchange for the land seized in the 1967 war. The proposal was unveiled in February but details have not been made public yet.

Egypt�s President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan�s King Abdullah, the only Arab countries to have peace deals with Israel, endorsed the initiative. But Syria and Lebanon have expressed misgivings about any settlement with Israel that omits the right of Palestinian refugees to return home.

Prince Abdullah�s proposals, or at least the vague version now going the rounds, do not make clear what comes first�recognition or withdrawal. This troubles Syrians who believe the Israelis might fox them into giving it recognition�and then refuse to withdraw. The Israelis have broken withdrawal agreements with the Palestinians several times, Syrian commentators say.

Israel has also refused to give up the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in 1967 and subsequently annexed in 1981. Israel insists that it will not restore Syrian access to the Sea of Galilee, the Jewish state�s largest source of fresh water. This became the stumbling block in peace talks launched between the two countries in January 2000 that ended within weeks.

Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi rejected the Saudi blueprint, and threatened to withdraw from the Arab League for advocating what he called "defeatist" policies. The Gadhafi statement sent Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa rushing to the Libyan resort of Sirte. Mr. Moussa launched a diplomatic offensive to avert a split within the Arab League on the eve of the summit conference in Beirut on March 27-28.

Iran, which has remained conspicuously silent on Prince Abdullah�s initiative, is another nation to watch. Iran is not a member of the 22-nation Arab League, but it is a key ally of Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinians, and wields considerable influence in the Middle East.