Okay, it was a successful operation. Maybe here and there a bit clumsy. Amos Biderman's cartoon in Haaretz in which "our fine young men" were all wearing the same glasses because there was a sale at Opticana reflects our preoccupation with the killing of one Arab, dangerous and wicked as he may be. But it doesn't solve any of the really serious problems facing the country.

The media is full of fantastic stories about the tremendous success of the most widely reported secret operation ever. Britain's Sunday papers, known for their revelations, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu inspected the Mossad team himself (according to the foreign press, of course) and wished them success. Another newspaper "exposed" that training was carried out in a Tel Aviv hotel.

As a person who holds many meetings in hotel lobbies, I pictured all the characters I have seen with tennis rackets and shorts walking around the lobby and wondered - could I have stood face to face with one of them? Could that woman with the penetrating stare be the same one as in Dubai, in disguise?

As I was gobbling down these thrillers, my eye caught the report by Barak Ravid and Avi Issacharoff in Haaretz about the French-Spanish initiative for European recognition of a Palestinian state even before negotiations end. That story brings us down to earth to our real problem: Bibi's government has been in power for more than a year and nothing has moved ahead on issues of peace. Not with the Palestinians and not with Syria.

The Palestinians have concluded that another round of negotiations will not help. So have the Israelis. It's all because of Bibi. Meanwhile, nothing has happened and it's not clear what will happen in the year ahead. Luckil y for us, for the time being there is no terror - and that's working in Bibi's favor.

But the sense is that the Americans have moved aside a bit. Has anybody heard from special envoy George Mitchell lately? Have Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's metallic tones been heard? No one can depend on the parties reaching an agreement. Under these circumstances, either an agreement will be forced on us or they will withdraw from the process. With Iran's nuclear developments threatening the whole world, it's more likely to assume that sooner or later they will force an arrangement on us.

If reports are true that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is ready to renew talks, with Prime Minister Salam Fayyad at his side - the man who rehabilitated the West Bank and the most serious potential leader on the horizon - we must decide how to translate Bibi's commitment in his Bar-Ilan speech into a two-state solution.

A precondition for the negotiations to succeed, if they take place, is that both sides give up on preconditions, because preconditions are like mines planted at the beginning of the road. A second condition: Before starting talks, each side should figure out how many concessions they are willing to make, so they can come to the table partially ready, at least within their own camps.

Are the Palestinians prepared to be flexible regarding permanent borders? Is Israel? Or more precisely, will Israel be able to move some settlements to other areas? Is it prepared to exchange territories? Has the Netanyahu government taken into consideration that the break-in to the Jericho synagogue is just a small sample of what the hilltop thugs are preparing for? Do Bibi and his government have the fortitude to use force to combat domestic insurrection?

If the French-Spanish initiative for Europe's recognition of Palestine before negotiations is serious, this should be seen as the tip of the iceberg of what can happen to us if we insist on presenting unreasonable conditions and we let the political right set policy. Partners more moderate than Abbas and Fayyad are not currently on the horizon.

The question is, how much longer will we deal with this cacophony over espionage? Without detracting from the Mossad's success, if it was responsible for the action, this was a pinpoint success. It's not a reason for the country to act like an ostrich burying its head in the sand and believing that the world has stopped turning.