Heading straight to Ramallah from Ben Gurion International Airport Tuesday afternoon, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wasted no time in trying to get talks back on track between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Rice met first with PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, hoping to neutralize the damage, at least that done to negotiations, by Hamas terrorist attacks on southern Israel since last week.

It was not immediately clear whether she was successful. In a joint news conference following their meeting, Abbas spoke little, other than to announce to reporters, “Peace and negotiations are [our] strategic choice.”

Tuesday evening Rice was set to meet in Jerusalem for a working dinner with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is expected to agree with her that talks should get back on track quickly.

Rice met Monday with Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and then separately with President Hosni Mubarak late Monday on the first leg of another shuttle diplomacy tour of the region.

After the meetings in Cairo, Rice told reporters at a joint news conference with Aboul Gheit that she hopes to rejuvenate the Israel-PA talks despite efforts by Hamas to sabotage the process.

Israel was forced to intensify its military activities in response to stepped-up attacks on Israel by the terrorist organization, and launched “Operation Warm Winter” in an effort to prevent further assaults on Israeli civilians in the south.

At least 20 Katyusha and Grad missiles had slammed into Ashkelon by 8:00 a.m. Saturday morning. Throughout the day, dozens of homemade, shorter-range Kassam rockets rained down on nearby Sderot and other Gaza Belt communities.

By Saturday evening, another Grad missile attack was fired at Ashkelon, this time striking the Marine Coastal Center, prompting the IDF to intensify its operations still further.

By nightfall, Israeli soldiers had killed dozens of terrorists, but 12 Gaza civilians were also caught in the crossfire while fierce clashes raged between the IDF and terrorists.

On Saturday night, the PA formally suspended further talks with Israel. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was informed by PA chief negotiator Ahmed Qureia of the decision by PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) to cancel negotiations.

All of which Rice insisted should convince both Israel and the PA to move ahead with negotiations as soon as possible.

“There has to be an active peace process that can withstand the efforts of rejectionists to keep peace from being made; the people who are firing rockets do not want peace,” she told reporters in Cairo before leaving for Israel. “Hamas is doing what might be expected, which is using rocket attacks on Israel to arrest a peace process in which they have nothing to gain.” 

Rice added that Israel has the right to defend itself, but expressed the hope that “something can be done about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, including regularizing in some fashion the Rafiah Crossing."

She remained insistent that a peace deal could be made by the end of 2008 “if everybody has got the will to do it,” but acknowledged, however, that actually putting any such deal in place would take a lot longer.

“Operation Warm Winter” has been put on ice for the time being, but defense officials had begun planning the next stage of the operation.