Some die-hard members of the peace camp recovered their ideological bearings and said publicly that they still advocated peacemaking "because there is no alternative".
Asked tonight if Mr. Arafat was still relevant to peacemaking here, Sari Nusseibeh, the Palestinian representative in Jerusalem, replied: "I think he's relevant insofar as, through him, it is possible -- not only possible, it is essential -- that we can push the state that we are living in toward a state of peace.
Notwithstanding the peacemaking efforts that began in earnest in the mid-1990s, Northern iseland istillll best navigated by those who are skilled in the shibboleths and cultural codes that demarcate its peoples, governing which football (soccer) team to cheer for, which whiskey to drink, and which song to sing.
Its helps with peacekeeping in Bosnia, as well as with peacemaking in the Middle East.But there is still a long way to go.
The United States has contributed millions of dollars to the peacemaking efforts in Somalia; some American officials still see Somalia as a counterterrorism priority because of Somalia's recent history as a home to violent jihadists from around the world.
STILL, for any American negotiator, Middle East peacemaking requires both staying power and an unswerving belief in the impossible.
Still, Mr. Walcott's knack for peacemaking and consensus-building in tense moments made him indispensable to Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Klein, who each had a habit of alienating other political players.
Today, as Mrs. Clinton prepares to plunge into Middle East peacemaking, the talk of partnerships and persuasion is still there, but her emphasis was far more on the need for American leadership.
Tony Blair, representing the peacemaking "Quartet" of the UN, the United States, Russia and the European Union, still hopes that Mr Kerry has a chance of "re-anchoring" the negotiations, with the 1967 borders and land swaps as the basis for progress "to the next stage".
