An error on my part. I should have said, "were the Palestinians intent on renewing peace talks and negotiations, assuming that the American intervention is useful for that end."

This would, of course, contradict the reasoning I would have put behind their attempt at sending a car-bomb in the cover of an ambulance.

By the way, I think you have ignored other serious possibilities, for instance, that unbeknownst to the PA leadership, somewhere along the chain of command, a member of a militant faction would decide to use this as an opportunity for havoc, regardless of what the PA leadership would want. Perhaps the Israeli response was also in some way a manner of protecting the PA leadership from its own folly.