here are few things you can count on in life. But one is that NATO will end its annual summit, as it did a few weeks ago, with a call for the creation of "a NATO rapid reaction force" to deal with the "new threats of the 21st century." When all else fails, when you can't think of anything for an alliance to do, call for a rapid reaction force. I weep for the trees that will now be chopped down for all the think-tank studies about what this NATO force should do.

A NATO rapid reaction force? Oh, please. A NATO expanded to 26 countries is not going to be reacting rapidly anywhere. NATO already has a rapid reaction force, the only one it needs. It's called the U.S. Army Special Forces. What NATO needs to be relevant is not a new rapid reaction force, it's a bigger no-motion force — a NATO peacekeeping army. We don't need a NATO that can run. We need a NATO that can sit — in more places than Bosnia and Kosovo. And today there's no more important place for NATO to sit than between Israelis and Palestinians.

A year ago I suggested that Israelis and Palestinians invite NATO to take control of the West Bank, Gaza and Arab areas of East Jerusalem (with minor border adjustments agreed by both sides) — both to supervise the creation of a Palestinian state and to serve as a permanent border guard between the two.

The logic was obvious: Israel can't remain in the territories and continue to be a Jewish democracy, and Israel can't just pick up and leave the territories and remain a secure Jewish democracy. Palestinians are not ready to run those areas responsibly. But just letting their vicious conflict burn on will become increasingly dangerous and costly to the U.S. Al Qaeda and all other anti-American forces will draw energy from it — energy they will use to attack Jews and undermine whatever the U.S. tries to accomplish in Iraq.

What to do? The collapse of the Oslo peace, and the subsequent violence, has made an Israeli-Palestinian deal more necessary, but less possible. The mutual trust needed for a self-sustaining peace is gone. The only way out is for a trusted third party to take over the territories and separate the two. The only viable party is a U.S.-led NATO force.

The main Israeli criticism of this idea has been that such an international force would block Israel from hot pursuit of Palestinian terrorists, who would kill Jews and then run behind NATO, and NATO itself would become a target. The fact is, though, Ariel Sharon has adopted a policy of hot pursuit and it has resulted in the Palestinian Authority's being destroyed and more Israelis being killed and feeling insecure than ever. The only way Israel is going to have security is if Palestinians provide it by restraining their own, which will happen only when they have a responsible state, which can emerge only under energetic NATO supervision — not Israeli occupation.

Palestinians are increasingly warming to this idea, because they see it as a way of easing out Yasir Arafat and as their only route to statehood. What's really interesting, though, is how many Israelis — who would also like to see Mr. Arafat removed, but don't want the Israeli Army to fill the vacuum — are now getting interested.

The cover story of the latest issue of the centrist Israeli magazine Jerusalem Report was an article from Kosovo stating that "several high-profile diplomats are convinced that a Kosovo-style international trusteeship over the Palestinian territories provides the only way out of the conflict. And many Israelis are starting to take an interest — including some on the right."

Indeed, the right-leaning Jerusalem Post ran two articles last week about a proposal by a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, for a U.S.-led trusteeship — backed by American, British and Australian special forces — that would oversee the building of a democratic Palestinian state while uprooting the terrorist infrastructure. "President Bush has laid out a grand vision of a democratic Palestinian state, living alongside a secure Israel," said Mr. Indyk. "But he has failed to articulate an effective mechanism for achieving it. Some form of trusteeship is the only workable alternative."

The Bush team can either get ahead of this idea and shape it, or it can get dragged into it because of a total breakdown between Israelis and Palestinians during or after an Iraq war. But it's coming, because it's the only way out. And by the way, all you Europeans in NATO who favor a Palestinian state — here's a chance to put your sons where your heart is.