Ariel Sharon's recent well-timed visit to Islam's third most holy site - the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem - has almost succeeded in effectively derailing the so-called Middle East Peace talks. The fire, which he ignited that day, fanned predictably into another raging Intifada, or 'Uprising of Stones'. The current struggle between the Palestinian Davids and the Jewish Goliaths has been played out daily before our very eyes - sticks, stones and words of abuse being traded against bullets, rockets, tanks and helicopters from one of the world's most aggressive and heavily-armed regimes.

Meanwhile, an outgoing US President attempts to leave his mark on history's page by coercing two recalcitrant and very unwilling politicians - the Palestinian Authority's Arafat and the Israeli Government's Barak - to meet in Cairo and negotiate an unsatisfactory and largely unacceptable 'peace agreement'. Neither party really wanted to meet, nor did their respective supporters wish them to do so. But politics is a strange animal - it spends a lot of time chasing its own tail, and sometimes even bites it.

What sort of peace could be reasonably achieved given the calibre and level of sincerity of the players involved in this drama? What are the chances of its success given the constant hostility and oppression that has alternately simmered and flared over the past half-century? How can there be a 'win-win' resolution to this conflict when the sides are so obviously unequal?

For over fifty years the Palestinians have been progressively dispossessed of their lands, their freedom and their dignity by a succession of Zionist leaders, with the complicity and support of the major powers. The latter have vested interests in seeing the modern state of Israel prevail over not just the wretched Palestinians but also over the entire region. With the threat of Communism now behind them, overt attacks and covert operations can be resumed with renewed vigour upon the last perceived 'enemy of the West', Islam. This is not to be seen as a simple conspiracy theory, but as the culmination of a thousand years of militant antagonism and intellectual opposition to Islam and its heartlands.

The children of Adam are given to bloody violence and mischief making. The innumerable wars and deaths of the twentieth century alone bear tragic testimony to that fact. However, this should never be used as an excuse for carnage or revenge. Our objective must be to establish peace, through the implementation of Allah's will on earth. And how is this to be achieved? By struggle and effort and sacrifice. By willingly giving to it our time and money and commitment. These things, after all, belong to Allah and He quietly and insistently demands that we repay our debt to Him. Along the Way, we need to clarify our intentions, question the status quo, support what's wholesome and reject the unacceptable. Ours is the eternal battle of truth against falsehood, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict reflects this, be it ever so slight.