The government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, ravaged by defections in the Likud and the ruling coalition, is proceeding undeterred along its established timetable for the evacuation of all 17 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four others in the northern West Bank by the end of 2005. 

President George W. Bush himself still seems convinced that the democratic bone fides of a Palestinian regime, rather than its territorial dimensions, are the key point of departure for U.S. policy.