Get straight on Mideast

Meeting Saturday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, President Bush said that while the United States had no timetable for a Middle East peace conference, discussions on setting a date should get "started quickly." Said the president, all sides need to "seize the moment."

Meeting Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Mr. Bush said "conditions aren't even there yet" for setting up a conference. He did not contradict Mr. Sharon's statement that "we don't see a partner" in Yasser Arafat. Yet Mr. Bush insisted that "Mr. Arafat is not the issue."

If the president's comments seem confusing, it is because the timetable that seems most important to the Bush administration and Congress is the November mid-term elections. With the House and Senate up for grabs, every voting bloc matters even more than usual. So the president puts off any meeting at which he might have to make demands of Israel, and lawmakers pass bipartisan resolutions in support of Israel that are designed as campaign commercials for Jewish voters. In the meantime, another suicide bomber attacked Tuesday inside Israel, fortunately killing only himself, and the Israeli army raided two towns and kept up the siege of Mr. Arafat's compound in Ramallah.