In today's WaPo, former Clinton and Bush 41 Mideast envoy Dennis Ross lays out the backbreaking problems currently facing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas -- joblessness, widespread frustration with his inability to deliver freedom of movement for the Palestinian people, a resurgent Hamas -- and notes with dismay that the international community, including the US, isn't doing much to help.

All this should be an alarm bell for the Bush administration and the world. Abbas believes in secular governance, the rule of law, nonviolence and coexistence with Israel. If he cannot make it, if he cannot demonstrate that his way offers a future for the Palestinian people, what message does that send? Who do we think will take his place? The possibility of Hamas's winning elections, tying his hands and eventually supplanting him is not a fantasy.

Photo opportunities will not provide him much help. And while Abbas must press harder against those resisting change, including in the security area, he needs more than rhetorical encouragement -- he needs real help from the outside. Material assistance must be provided -- not just pledged. Last December, donor nations pledged $1.2 billion to the Palestinians. Six months later, less than 10 percent of the money has materialized. And the money that has been provided -- as important as it is -- is not going to meet the urgent needs created by unemployment. Per capita income in the West Bank and Gaza was $1,800 a year in 2000 and is down to $1,000. Jobs are urgently needed; labor-intensive projects must be financed and launched now.

The international community acts as if a business-as-usual approach will suffice in providing the assistance that has been pledged. That could mean that by the time the money begins to appear, it will be Hamas, not the Palestinian Authority, making the calls on how it is spent. It's time for the Bush administration to make a major push to get donors to deliver. The Abbas visit should provide the catalyst for such an initiative.

Yep, it should. The Bush administration's policy of not-so-benign neglect toward the PA probably made sense at the tail-end of the Arafat era. Today, it's just crazy; you don't let the man who represents the best chance for peace we're likely to see in our lifetimes slowly twist in the wind. Abbas' government needs substantial and sustained assistance. And it's past time for President Bush to assemble a real coalition of the willing to provide it.