The Clinton administration's stated goal is to establish peace between Israel and the Palestinians, not necessarily to resolve their political differences. This tactic does not appear to be working at the moment, and it is difficult to escape the conclusion that the deck is stacked against Mr Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
The President has detailed what he expects of the Palestinian Authority and Mr Arafat's obligation to prevent terrorism: "Number one, we expect them to resume meaningful, real, consistent security co-operation with the Israeli authorities in the way that they do when they work best."
Mrs Madeleine K. Albright, the US Secretary of State, will make her first visit to Israel soon. It will not be easy for her, since her recent momentous discovery that she is Jewish by birth. She was raised a Catholic.
Her special envoy, Mr Dennis B. Ross, returned to Washington yesterday after a four-day trip that resulted in easing travel from the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Hebron to Israel, and established an Israel-Palestine Authority intelligence committee, on which the US is represented by the CIA station chief in Tel Aviv.
Mrs Albright's predecessor, Mr Warren Christopher, made approximately 123 stops in the Middle East during his tenure, according to someone who was counting, and achieved nothing that anyone remembers. At this point Mr Ross is a strong competitor for the Middle East record.
As the latest envoy arrived home, the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, announced that his government had "information" about the possibility, even the planning, of new terrorist attacks.
King Hussein of Jordan, usually an apologist for the peace process even in its darkest moments, remarked: "We cannot predict what the future will bring except disaster."
Mr Ross told a TV interviewer he believed Israel would ease its sanctions when co-operation with the Palestinians was restored. Israel is withholding monthly payments for the Palestine Authority which it is obliged to pay under the Oslo Peace Accords.
It is doing so as a punitive measure to force Mr Arafat to work with Israel in hunting down Palestinians who use terror as Mr Arafat and Mr Netanyahu have used terror to achieve their ends. Mr Arafat calls it "state terrorism".
Ms Albright used Mr Clinton's language about there being no equivalence between "bombs and bulldozers" in her Press Club speech. Palestinians would reply (and indeed New York Times columnist, Anthony Lewis, has in effect replied) that the bulldozing of their homes in Jerusalem and elsewhere has created the tensions that led to the Islamic bombing in Jerusalem.
The Washington Post warned recently that Mr Netanyahu's pursuit of a "secure peace" had brought neither security nor peace to Israel. It advised Mr Clinton that the Israeli public is "opening to alternatives to his [Mr Netanyahu's] strategy".
So far Mr Clinton has not taken this advice. He appears to be backing the Israeli government 100 per cent.
There is no equivalence either in the amount of US money budgeted annually in Israeli military and economic assistance, or in the political influence the Jews command in US politics, particularly through the American-Israel public affairs committee, a lobbying group on Capitol Hill.
Ms Albright will have her work cut out for her in bringing peace to the Middle East and selling it to the US public. It is an extra-sensitive period, as it leads up to the US celebration or condemnation of the partition of Palestine 50 years ago next November, marking the day when Britain returned its League of Nations mandate to the United Nations.