Timing is everything. It’s two days before talks in Cairo between major Palestinian factions. The fourth item on the agenda for the talks, as reported by Reuters, is a cease-fire. At the same time, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are unveiling their plan for an Israel and a Palestine in a flashy ceremony in Switzerland.

What happens suddenly in the midst of this new movement?

With more than 60 tanks, jeeps and armored personnel carriers, the Israeli Army raids suspected militant cells in a refugee camp near Ramallah, killing three (likely armed resistance) and arresting at least 30 Palestinians.

In street demonstration that ensued in the morning, nine-year-old Mazen Hamdan was shot and killed when occupation troops opened fire to disperse the crowd. In all, seven people have been killed in the immediate lead-up to the talks, according to BBC reports. Granted, arrest operations are not new to the West Bank.

In fact, I found myself cowering under my bed at 2 a.m. last summer in my apartment in a church in Bethlehem while Israeli special forces carried out a similar operation, with gunfire and explosions lighting the ancient stone streets only a few yards away. I heard later they were looking for a suspect, but didn’t find him. Such nights are commonplace in the West Bank.

However, what happened Monday was much larger. Some reports in the Israeli press claim as many as 90 jeeps were involved in house-to-house searches and arrests in Ramallah. It is clear that Monday’s raid was a flagrantly incendiary operation in a series of recent provocations.

It is hardly coincidence that the Israeli military decided it was the right time, two days before the cease-fire talks, to carry out such a massive operation in Ramallah.

Speaking of provocation, Israel has approved 1,720 new houses in Israeli colonies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip this week, according to the Washington Post. The “Road Map,” Aqaba agreements, United Nations Security Council resolutions and the Oslo Accords all prohibit such construction, but Israel continued at a sustained rate. This approval comes as a severe blow to any hope of a just settlement as the land on which any Palestinian state would be built is disappearing rapidly. It also comes as a jab at the world, asserting Ariel Sharon’s control despite the efforts of the international community.

Just two weeks ago in London, President Bush told the Washington Post, “Israel should freeze settlement construction, dismantle unauthorized outposts, end the daily humiliation of the Palestinian people and not prejudice final negotiations with the placements of walls and fences.”

Many Israelis oppose the colony construction in the West Bank, seeing as an obstacle to an eventual two-state solution. Last week Kofi Annan and the United Nations had sharp words for Israel: “In the midst of the road map process, when each party should be making good-faith confidence-building gestures, the barrier’s construction in the West Bank cannot, in this regard, be seen as anything but a deeply counterproductive act,” according to the Associated Press.

To add insult to injury, once again news reports claim the violence has only recently picked up. The BBC calls it “the recent period of relative calm” and other major news organizations make similar claims, but these statements ignore the daily violence of the Israeli military occupation. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, house demolitions, injuries and deaths are a near-daily reality for noncombatants in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Just since the last indefensible suicide bombing two months ago, more than 70 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military, mostly noncombatants, 17 of who were children, according to Ali Abunimah in the Chicago Tribune this week. Yet, journalists continue to recycle the phrase “period of relative calm.”

Often only Palestinian extremists are blamed for the failure of peace efforts. Blame certainly does not rest solely upon the fanatical government of Ariel Sharon, but of course also with extremist Palestinian organizations who use these bombings to advance their cause. However, we must also recognize the military assassinations and other events that contribute to the violence. The responsibility rests with justice-seeking people on both sides to regain control. Israel, the occupying power, has the responsibility do its part to find a just solution.

Timing is indeed everything. This week’s attacks into Ramallah, the approval of huge new colonial expansion and the ignorance of daily Palestinian suffering may furnish just the right mix of humiliation and provocation to make the situation even more dangerous.