...There were smiles aplenty, and why not? Everyone was on board with the "two-state solution," a scenario that recreates a country called Palestine. Presumably, this is where the long-suffering Palestinians finally will have a secure homeland, a place to enjoy the blessings of freedom and self-determination.

This is a laudable goal. But like throwing the car keys to a first-grader, it is hazardously premature.

I intend no metaphoric insult to Palestinians, as if they are not mature enough to self-govern. They are grown-ups who deserve to make their own leadership choices.

The sad thing is that their most recent choices, in what passes for elections in their war-torn territories, have been to embrace the blood-soaked rule of Hamas. Far too many Palestinians rejected Mr. Abbas' more moderate Fatah party to elect lawmakers whose policy goals include the violent eradication of Israel.

In a queasy irony, Mr. Olmert, the Israeli leader, nonetheless shares a gung-ho zeal for a headlong rush to a new Palestine.

At the State Department, deputy spokesman Tom Casey tried after the conference to destigmatize the Palestinian voters' hunger for terrorist leadership. "Those Hamas votes were based on a variety of things," he told me. "Hamas made various promises about economic reform and services to people that resonated among voters."

No kidding. But if a candidate comes to me and says he wants to cut taxes and government spending, but, by the way, he also wants to nuke Canada, that's going to be a deal-breaker...