Fatal Delusions

JERUSALEM — Here on the quiet streets of Israel, where no one wants to visit a restaurant that is popular, where people scuttle away from anyone with a thick coat, where holy books preach brotherhood as humans call for reprisals, how can faith in the future be restored?

Only by giving up two dangerous delusions of Middle East politics. President Bush has made an excellent start in engaging the Middle East, but real peace is conceivable only if all sides tackle these delusions head on.

The first delusion concerns the rising Palestinian hopes of a universal "right of return" — in other words, the notion that all Palestinians will be able to celebrate a peace agreement by moving back to ancestral homes within Israel proper. It won't happen. Allowing a large-scale return would mean the death of Israel as a state that is both democratic and Jewish, and Israel will never commit suicide.