Israeli leaders have indicated they will back a U.S. plan for peace in the Middle East that includes the recognition of a Palestinian state-- with conditions.

The road map, drafted by the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, calls for an immediate cease-fire, followed by a series of simultaneous confidence-building steps by the two sides, including the disarming and dismantling of Palestinian militant groups, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a freeze on Jewish settlement expansion and the immediate dismantling of small settlement outposts established in the past two years. The plan calls for the creation of a "provisional" Palestinian state by the end of this year and a fully independent and sovereign state by 2005.

The "conditions" Israel are seeking include the relinquishment by Palestinians of the right to return to parts of Israel:

Most significantly, the cabinet members said that before the creation of a Palestinian state, Palestinian refugees had to give up their claim to a "right of return" to areas in Israel that they left during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The road map does not specifically refer to the right of return but calls for a realistic solution to the refugee issue.

Apparently, the Palestinians refuse to acknowledge the condition.

A senior Palestinian official said that in the interest of pushing the road map forward, his government would simply ignore the Israeli conditions. "The Israeli cabinet wanted to make themselves feel better about the road map, so they decided they were going to accept the road map as they define it, which includes this condition that Palestinians have to give up the right to return," he said. "We are ignoring that condition because it is irrelevant, and it's not part of the road map, nor will it ever be."

It doesn't sound to us like there is a meeting of the minds here.