The New York Times

A good host caters to his guests. We hope, then, that it was hospitality, not a failure of leadership, that caused George W. Bush to offer such different messages in public appearances with Hosni Mubarak of Egypt on Saturday and Ariel Sharon of Israel on Monday. In Mubarak's company at Camp David, Bush said the United States must start working immediately toward establishing a Palestinian state. In the Oval Office on Monday with Sharon, the president said that until there was sweeping reform of the Palestinian Authority there could be no progress on Mideast peace.

Reforms are indeed essential, but the United States must resist Sharon's demand that until they are in place there can be no negotiations on a Palestinian state. Bush said late last week that he would soon address the American people on how he plans to move forward on the Middle East. His aides say that a statement, expected in the next week or two, will call for parallel movement toward three goals: improved security to end anti-Israel terror, rebuilding Palestinian institutions to establish a Palestinian state, and political negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on all outstanding issues. A regional conference of foreign ministers planned for this summer should go ahead, focused on these goals. Bush needs to make clear in his upcoming statement that all three processes will move forward at the same time.

If it were up to Sharon, there would be no discussion of Palestinian statehood until Palestinian terror attacks ceased, Yasser Arafat was no longer in power and a new, democratic Palestinian government had taken over. We, too, would be happy to see those changes, but making them preconditions for negotiations will only feed cynicism among Palestinians who believe that Israeli calls for reform are nothing more than delaying tactics.

In fact, there have been increased Palestinian calls for internal reform. Prominent Palestinians have publicly said that the competing security services should be consolidated, the judiciary made independent and corrupt economic officials fired. The Bush administration is rightly seeking to build on indigenous Palestinian efforts rather than imposing its own arrangements from outside.

The administration has also correctly decided to steer away from the question of whether Arafat stays in power by focusing on ways to help the Palestinians restructure their institutions into more democratic and responsible ones. Turning Arafat into the central issue would make it impossible for other Palestinians to step forward. If all the concerned parties turn their attention to institutional reform, the outcome may be that Arafat finds himself without the power he has so badly abused.

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