Sharon's charade.

• Position: Comment - Ariel Sharon

No one ever lost a bet wagering against peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Only a fool would risk much on Bush's so-called road map. He can talk all he wants about "riding herd" on the participants, and he may even succeed in gaining a temporary cease-fire, but unless he really gets tough with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, he might as well put the road map away and stay home.

After Bush's meeting on June 4 in Aqaba, Jordan, where he unfolded the map in front of Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, there was a flicker of hope. "A Good Beginning," The Economist said on its cover.

But within days, reactionary, violent forces on both sides made a mockery of that headline, as they did their dirty work to keep the blood flowing.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Al Aqsa Brigade are all among those reactionary, violent forces. Their repeated suicide bombings and their doctrinal hostility to the state of Israel play a huge part in the tedious drama of violence.

But so, too, does Sharon. And the Bush Administration is jeopardizing the prospects of peace by suggesting that the problem is overwhelmingly Palestini an and by not forcefully condemning Sharon's policy and practice of assassination, incursion, and settlement. The assassination attempts have killed 230 Palestinians, including "more than 100 bystanders," according to Palestinian spokesperson Hanan Ashrawi.

The United States has precious little leverage over Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists. But it can place enormous pressure on Sharon, since Washington gives Israel upwards of $3 billion in aid every year. Bush should use that leverage to the full extent possible.

It's sometimes hard to pinpoint the originator of any cycle of violence in the Middle East, since the assaults from both sides are so ongoing that identifying any particular act as causal is tricky. No side is blameless. After the June 4 meeting, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Al Aqsa Brigade came together to wage an assault, killing four Israeli soldiers. The message was clear. They did not support the peace plan. Shortly thereafter, Sharon upped the ante by attempting to assassinate Hamas leader Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantisi.

The target was not just Rantisi. The Israeli missiles "were also aimed at the credibility of, and potential support for, newly appointed Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and his government," wrote Ashrawi in the Los Angeles Times. Ashrawi, a legislator in the Palestinian Authority, said the assassination attempt also had "the converse effect of bringing Hamas to ascendancy with its program of armed resistance."

Bush barely could squeak that he was "troubled" by this assassination attempt. But even this mild rebuke enraged supporters of the Sharon government, Democrat and...