Q & A: How the roadmap is affected

Can the road map survive the latest violence?

James Reynolds, the BBC's correspondent in Jerusalem, assesses the implications of the latest Middle East violence on the roadmap to peace.

Is the roadmap retrievable?

It's unclear. No one's yet pronounced it dead.

Peacemakers are still working on it. It's still the only peace plan in town - the international community will not want to give up on it just yet.

But roadmap navigators will know that, in the last two years here, no single peace plan has ever survived a sustained period of violence.

How can it be put back on track?

A lot will depend on what the White House does.

President Bush's envoy, former ambassador John Wolf, is due to arrive here soon. He's meant to oversee the implementation of the peace plan.

Many will wait to see if he has enough leverage to force both sides into fulfilling their roadmap obligations.

What is Sharon up to now?

This is a fascinating question. One Israeli commentator has called him "Mr Ariel and Dr Sharon."

There appear to be two Sharons - the one who's talked about an end to occupation and conflict, and who has taken down settlement outposts. And then there's the Sharon who's taking the fight to Hamas in Gaza.

Many find it hard to reconcile the two. Essentially, many Israelis believe his focus is security - if that means taking on Hamas, and putting aside some of the demands of the roadmap, then so be it.

Is he weaker through his support of an already failing peace plan?

It doesn't look like it - although it may be too early to tell. Many are sceptical of his position on the roadmap.

But, whenever there are suicide attacks here, the population tends to rally round him. Many Israelis believe there's no one else they can turn to when Israel is under attack. Sharon still has no rival as his country's "break-glass-in-emergency" leader.

Where does Arafat come into this?

It looks like he's keen to play a central role.

After the bus bombing in Jerusalem, he called publicly for an immediate ceasefire - beating by half an hour a similar statement made by his rival, the new Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.

Arafat has been sidelined by Israel, America and the roadmap navigators. But the peace plan hasn't made any progress without him.

So, by issuing a public ceasefire call after the bomb, he's effectively saying that the peace process can't work without him - that he's the only leader with the ability to bring about a ceasefire.

Is Hamas ever likely to support the roadmap?

It doesn't look like it.

Hamas is committed to the creation of a single, Islamic state in all of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. The roadmap aims for a two-state solution.

But peace brokers hope that Hamas will still be persuaded to agree to a ceasefire during the initial stages of the peace plan - giving the Palestinian prime minister a chance to win concessions from Israel.