Condi expressed a sense of historical impatience. She was running out of time. No, she was not talking about her biological clock. What was she talking about? The birth of Palestine, of course. Fortunately, it appears that Rice’s impatience is not shared by all Israelis. Her burning desire to add a successful summit to her resume is just not going to be satisfied. The Middle East Summit may be postponed.

Associated Press reports that a U.S. State Department official says that the Middle East conference, scheduled by U.S. President George W. Bush for late November in Annapolis, Md., might be delayed.

“This is going to take some time,” the official said after Jerusalem meetings between Israeli leaders and visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. “This is going to require a lot of hands-on American diplomacy. These are really tough issues.”

Secretary Rice, currently visiting in Israel, met with several Israeli government ministers on Sunday, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Industry and Trade Minister Eli Yishai of the Shas party, and Finance Minister Roni Bar-On of Kadima.

Bar-On told Rice that it was still too early to get into the nitty-gritty of negotiations for a final Israel-PA peace deal, as the Palestinian Authority demands and the United States would like.

Minister Yishai was more to the point, saying that Jerusalem can simply not be put up for negotiation. If his party in fact resigns from the government, this would almost certainly be followed by a similar walk-out by Yisrael Beiteinu, thus toppling the government and forcing new elections.

Yishai further said the PA is run by two heads – Hamas in Gaza, and Fatah in Judea and Samaria – and that the prospects of an agreement are very small. In light of the dangers of increased terrorism in the event of a summit failure, Yishai said, the summit should deal not with political matters, but with economics. He added that he would be happy to meet with his PA counterpart to advance the relevant issues.

Secretary Rice expressed a sense of historical impatience: “We’ve been putting these issues off for decades, and it’s time that everything is put on the table and decided. The time has come for a Palestinian state.”