This is just a piece of the happenings, but ever since the US tried to start peacetalks, it seems we are just making things worse.
I admit I am not all that well informed of the relations between Israel and Palastine, except they are very violent and bloody. Are events like the past few weeks normal, or truly more then the usual?
I don’t think things can get any worse than they already were before. What I think there needs to be on part of the PA is a propaganda move against violence. Not just saying “we don’t like it”. As long as terrorists have popular support, the terrorists will keep going at it. However, there are a variety of reasons why people support terrorists and these tend to revolve around biases, religion and more propaganda. Whee…
The major problem is that the Quartet is focusing on talks between Sharon and Abbas. Unfortunately, this won’t do jack as far as stopping terrorism. What they need to do is set up talks between Abbas and Hamas/Islamic Jihad/Fatah. Y’see, Abbas keeps saying he wants peace (and I’m not ruling out that he does mean that; he’s said and done certain things that have gone way beyond anything Arafat ever did) but he’s got his hands tied, since terrorists have so much popularity in the West Bank/Gaza, if he cracks down on them it’s very likely he’ll have a civil war on his hands.
Unfortunately, the one thing Hamas and its ilk have specifically said they won’t do is talk. In particular, they believe that all of Israel (not just the West Bank and Gaza) should be <I>judenrein</I>). So they have nothing to gain by a state next door to it. Which means that the only real way to get them out of the way is a crackdown. Which might cause a civil war.
The first thing that has to happen is to lower the Palestinians’ support for these terrorist groups - mainly by propaganda (i.e. telling people that blowing yourself up to kill Jews will NOT take you to heaven, etc.). I’m biased in Israel’s favor, so I won’t throw in “painful concessions by Israel” here, because I think it can very well be done without causing more loss of Israeli life by lessening security in a volatile region. Anyway, once they’re not quite as popular, the crackdown can commence without worries of an enormous backlash. So Sin’s hit the nail pretty close to the head. 
I remember seeing an interview where Arafat said something like “if I accept this deal, I’ll be drinking tea with Yitzahk Rahbin” ie they’ll fucking him. Now its on Abbas’ shoulders.
Saying both sides want “peace” is misleading. In the US, newsreports use “peace” accompanied by the unspoken implication “with each other.” From what I know, there are large numbers of people who don’t want that “with each other” part, and who want to whole of Israel and Palestine to their particular nationality.