Missing the Point

SAUDI ARABIA's Crown Prince Abdullah seemed to have only one message for President Bush at their meeting in Crawford, Tex., Thursday: that America's failure to restrain Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon threatens to send the region and U.S. interests in it "over a cliff," as the prince's spokesman put it. There is some truth in that. Though Mr. Bush has repeatedly called on Israel to end its military incursion into the West Bank -- and did so again both Thursday and Friday -- his messages to Israel have conveyed an ambivalence that Mr. Sharon has ruthlessly exploited.