How predictable. Peace talks – no matter how slim the chance of success - have always been a pretext for terror. Even during the Intifada, when terror attacks occurred on an almost daily basis – and sometimes more than once a day - we dreaded visits from American and European special envoys because we knew that as night follows day, there would be an attack specifically timed to coincide with the peace mission. This would inevitably be followed by a visit to the scene of the attack, from where the envoy would make sombre statements about how we mustn’t let this latest atrocity derail peace efforts.

And so last night, as Benjamin Netanyahu was on his way to Washington for peace talks, six Israeli children were orphaned when their parents were shot in cold blood. A pregnant woman and another young man were gunned down in the deliberately timed terror attack.

Pity those children and the families of all the latest victims of terror. Pity ordinary people on both sides of this conflict who simply yearn for a normal life, free from fear, hatred and violence.