On the right and left, many politicians believe that Mr. Sharon’s hints may be political and diplomatic posturing, to satisfy the Bush administration, to restore his sagging popularity, or perhaps to distract attention from a widening corruption investigation. Shimon Peres, the Labor Party leader, who met with Mr. Sharon this week, said he was skeptical. “You know, hints are not a policy,” Mr. Peres said in a telephone interview on Friday. “It’s like all the time in Israel they say we have hints of oil. The difference between hints of oil, and oil, is quite a major one.”

There’s a joke about how God led Moses through the desert for 40 years, yet still managed to plant the Israelis in the one part of the Middle East without oil.