U.S. diplomacy in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is crucial, but no one has a magic formula for curtailing the violence without appearing to reward terrorism.

People around the world are beseeching President Bush to become more actively involved in the dangerously deteriorating Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Good idea. But become actively involved doing what?

No one has given the Bush administration a brand-new plan for ending the violence and rebuilding the peace process. No one has offered a clever diplomatic formulation guaranteed to reach the hearts and minds of people who consider suicide bombings a legitimate political tactic. Without a clearly defined mission supported by all sides, more direct U.S. intervention might only complicate matters, provoking further instability throughout the region and adding to the risks of our international war against Islamic-based terrorists.

Still, the risks of American inaction are even greater. The violence is on the verge of exploding completely out of control, and instability already is spreading to the streets of other Arab nations whose governments have generally supported American foreign policy. President Bush and other top U.S. officials no doubt are deeply involved in behind-the-scenes diplomacy in an effort to curb the Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel and to ease the Israeli military crackdown in Palestinian communities in the West Bank. Yet the only public evidence of U.S. involvement is the moribund mission of the special envoy, Gen. Anthony Zinni.

Before the larger issues of the conflict can be addressed again, the first priority has to be a cessation of the violence. Any U.S. diplomacy toward that end must avoid the appearance of rewarding terrorism. It is difficult to imagine a more repugnant modern horror than the cultivation of a cadre of young suicide bombers who blow themselves apart in the process of killing as many Israeli civilians as possible. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who used to go to the trouble of establishing plausible deniability for acts of terror, bears undisguised blame for many of the recent attacks. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, aligned with Arafat's Fatah movement, has claimed responsibility for several suicide bombings -- including those carried out by teenage girls.

Offering Arafat broader concessions in an effort to end the terror campaign and lure him back to negotiations would be morally indefensible. Demanding restraint from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's forces also would be hypocritical, given our country's robust response to the Sept. 11 attacks.

At the same time, the Palestinians need some incentive to end their terror campaign, and Sharon needs to be reminded that military action alone cannot ensure Israel's security. Getting to that point is likely to require a two-step formulation. Step One: an unconditional cessation of violence -- an end to the suicide bombings, at least to the extent Arafat truly can control them, along with an Israeli military retreat from Palestinian communities in the West Bank. Step Two: a resumption of negotiations intended to lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state, the guarantee of legitimately secure borders for Israel and a real normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab governments of the region.

The framework of such an agreement already exists in the Mitchell plan, the Saudi plan and innumerable previous efforts. The problem lies not in the peace plans but in the character of the people who must have the courage and insight to carry them out.

Arafat's actions over the past 18 months should be enough to disabuse any remaining optimists who believed the longtime Palestinian leader genuinely wanted to forge a peaceful coexistence with Israel. Having inculcated such raw hatred of Jews, the Palestinian leadership now seems at the mercy of extremists who will be satisfied with nothing less than Israel's destruction. The degeneration of Israeli politics has been just as tragic. The region's only true democracy is controlled by what used to be considered its right-wing fringe, with the old warrior Sharon under intense political pressure to launch an even more brutal military reprisal in the West Bank.

The United States can't end such insanity alone, but Washington remains Israel's most important -- and often only -- ally. Meanwhile, the sane Arab governments of the region understand the risks they face by allowing the Palestinian terror campaign to grow. Coordinated pressure from Washington and the Arab world offers the best chance of moving Israelis and Palestinians back from the brink and toward the negotiating table, where the even more difficult issues can be broached again. The Bush administration can't be blamed for hesitating to commit itself to such a thankless mission with so little hope of success. But the only alternative is spreading carnage, with effects that soon will make life more dangerous for Americans at home and around the world.

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