For the second time in five weeks, King Abdullah II of Jordan has rung a warning bell in an appeal to Israeli leaders and public opinion. In an interview with Channel 2 News broadcast last night, our neighbor warned that unless rapid progress is made toward an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, the option of a two-state solution will be lost. The king said the window of diplomatic opportunity is closing. He urged the parties to take advantage of the momentum created by last week's Quartet meeting and to translate the Arab League's March 2002 Beirut Declaration into action.

The message was similar to that conveyed in King Abdullah's interview with Haaretz, published on January 19: The fence, the West Bank settlements and the Palestinians' lack of hope will soon make it impossible to reach a two-state solution, he said. "If we don't solve the Israeli-Palestinian issue," the king said, "then we may never be able to solve the Arab-Israeli issue."

Like other pragmatic Arab leaders in the Middle East, particularly the Egyptian president and the Saudi king, the plight of the Palestinians is not the sole - or even the main - issue troubling Jordan's King Abdullah. The Arab perception that Israel ended the last war at a disadvantage is emboldening radical Islamic elements to try their luck once more. These elements are no less of a threat to secular Arab regimes than they are to Israel. "We're all in the same boat," the king declared, reiterating his warning if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not end, the violent struggle in the territories will expand into a conflict between Israel and the entire Arab-Muslim world. If that happens, the ensuing fire will not distinguish between Israel and its Arab neighbors who cast their lot with peace.

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"Our failure is your failure, and vice versa," our neighbor the king concluded in the January interview. The increasing influence of the Shi'ites and global jihad on Israel's neighbors is no less of a clear and present danger than the threat of an Iranian nuclear bomb, on which so much ink has been spilled. When will Israel's leaders discuss the implication of the deterioration in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for the stability of the friendly regimes in Amman and Cairo?

It is only right that the king's impassioned cry be heard by the members of the Quartet as well, particularly the U.S. The road map expired more than a year ago. In place of the map are fruitless visits by the U.S. secretary of state and lip service by the Quartet members about a "political horizon." The impotence of the body that purports to lead the regional peace process was expressed by Javier Solana. After yet another meeting with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Friday, the European Union foreign policy chief said that Abbas was a "good guy," and sent him home empty-handed.