US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in the region yesterday on her sixth trip this year. The aim is always to resume the peace process, dead for most of the past seven years. This time, she says, the talks with the Israeli officials will tackle the "critical" issues - final borders, the fate of the holy city of occupied Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees and security arrangements. She is also expected to promote the November peace conference, proposed by President George W. Bush.

Rice says Washington means business. "Nobody wants a meeting where people simply come and talk and talk. We want to advance the cause," she said. But that is exactly what she has been doing on all these long trips to the region. Why should we expect this trip to be different? And why would this conference succeed where countless others - Madrid, Geneva, Camp David, Sharm Al Shaikh, to name few - have failed? One of the main obstacles to peace in the region is the lack of trust among the relevant parties. But the key stumbling block is that the Arabs no longer trust the mediator. Rice will simply come and talk and talk and get her souvenir photo. And that is all she will get from her Israeli hosts.