The road map in Crawford

WHEN PRESIDENT Bush receives Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at his Texas ranch Monday, he will have a chance to help shepherd Israelis and Palestinians toward the negotiated two-state resolution of their conflict that both peoples need and want.

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The Israeli press is reporting that Bush will not stress issues on which US and Israeli positions conflict. This would mean the president will not try to propel Sharon toward the final-status negotiations foreseen for the third and final stage of the road map to peace sponsored by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia. It would also mean not pressuring Sharon to renounce a plan to build 3,500 new housing units between the settler town of Ma'aleh Adumim and the Palestinian area of East Jerusalem.

The rationale for such muting of criticism is that Bush wants to be as supportive as possible of Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza. The dismantling of Gaza settlements and relocation of 8,000 residents is encountering resistance from some die-hard settler groups. Those groups, and allied rabbis, have called on Israeli soldiers to refuse to evacuate settlers. And Israeli security officials have warned of plots to assassinate Sharon or to stage an attack on the Al Aqsa mosque -- an action that would be aimed at provoking a furious reaction throughout the Muslim world, derailing the Gaza withdrawal.

Nevertheless, Bush ought to tell Sharon he can best serve Israel's long-term interests by seeking to enhance the standing of the Palestinian Authority's elected president, Mahmoud Abbas. That means making daily life more bearable for Palestinians.

Abbas, who has succeeded in suspending attacks on Israelis, is beleaguered on all sides. He is surrounded by Yasser Arafat's old guard -- often incompetent PLO figures who have earned their reputations for corruption. His own Fatah movement is riven by factions. Gunmen of the Fatah-linked Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade recently shot up Abbas's headquarters in Ramallah. At the same time, he is being urged by the Israelis to disarm militants. Most important, he faces local council elections in May and legislative elections in July that are expected to result in considerable success for the Islamist movement Hamas.

A democratic mandate for Hamas would create grave problems for Abbas, Israel, and a US administration committed to achieving an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. Bush can best pursue that goal by persuading Sharon to end the suffocating closures around Palestinian towns, release more prisoners, and declare his readiness to enter negotiations not to manage, but finally to end, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.