Reuters reports today that Israel's vice premier appears to be giving up on the "solution" that Bush forecast for Israel/Palestine in 2008.

Bush set the goal of trying to get both sides to sign a "peace treaty" before his term ends next January, though he did not spell out what that might entail.
[Vice Premier] Ramon said Bush's expectations for the coming year were aligned with Israel's, whereas Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wants a final peace treaty enabling him to declare a state by the end of the year.
Like Ramon, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who heads Abbas's government in the West Bank, has said he sees little chance of reaching a final resolution in 2008.
Ramon said the "declaration of principles" sought by Israel would address final-status issues like "what will be in Jerusalem" as well as statehood borders and the future of Palestinian refugees.
But Ramon said the declaration of principles would not settle thornier questions like how Jerusalem's Old City, holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians, would be administered.
"It has to be detailed enough in order to implement it in the years that will come after 2008, two to three years after, in a process of implementation," Ramon told reporters.

As violence mounts, and parties angry at reports of secret negotiations over Jerusalem's status threaten to leave Israel's coalition government, it appears more and more likely that 2008 will not mark progress toward peace, but rather a return straight back to square one.
Bush's last grasp at achieving "progress in the Middle East," then, will almost certainly rank as another of his many failures in the region.
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It's too little too late. Bush has never really been interested in peace in the Middle East - particularly one that would require an even handed approach. He let things deteriorate to a point where 1 year left in office, a lukewarm attempt - won't fix anything.

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