国际英语新闻：U.S. envoy visits Middle East amid Israel's rejection against Jerusalem building halt

As the parties seem to be clutching at straws, one piece of good news did emerge on Thursday for those who see advancing the peace process as the best way forwards. It is reported that the spiritual leader of one of the hawkish, religious parties in Netanyahu's coalition said he will not stand in the way of a policy change on Jerusalem if push came to shove.

Ovadia Yossef is the highly respected rabbi who guides Shas, which represents Jews of Middle-Eastern origin.

However, as with most other items of good news regarding the peace process, no sooner than it was made public, it was strongly denied by the political leader of Shas, Eli Yishai.

"Yishai is the one who has to seek re-election," said Ricci, pointing out that most Shas voters are further to the right than the party's leadership.

Shurab believes that the various elements of Netanyahu's government will not stay coalesced forever and he believes a general election is only "a matter of months."

Israeli analysts say that if Netanyahu is serious about peace, eventually he will have to part ways with Shas and a couple of other hawkish parties and introduce the dovish Kadima to his coalition line-up.

However, in order to truly satisfy Obama and the Palestinians, any coalition will have to cede parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinians. On the evidence made public today, it may be that, for Netanyahu, that would be just once concession too far.