The immediate question was what impact the attack would have on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

No one who follows the Israeli-Palestinian dispute can remember a more dispiriting time.

He would not have disengaged from the Israeli-Palestinian dispute as President Bush did in his first months of office.

He said the "main direction" for American policy in the region ought to be conflict resolution, including the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

Diversions from the Israeli-Palestinian dispute have preoccupied the State Department, and shifted the focus of world attention.

In recent weeks, senior administration officials have singled it out as a major obstacle to peace in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

The Israeli-Palestinian dispute is not only a squabble over land; it's intractable because each side wants the other to recognize its moral superiority.

An additional component of regional peace is the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

"There were just lots and lots of words added" by the Europeans, he said, about the need to address the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

Mr. Cheney did not come to the region to plunge into the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.