Bringing peace to the Middle East may take a miracle in the short run, but longer term it will take the sustained involvement of the United States and other countries to change the dynamic that now breeds only hopelessness and anger among young Palestinians.

The biggest problem facing any the current peace process is Hamas, the militant group that gladly takes credit for detonating the bombs that crater the road to peace. The way to solve this problem isn’t to try to take out the group’s leader as Israel did last week, and President Bush was right to criticize the assassination attempt, which only escalated the violence there. The way to undo Hamas is to lessen its appeal to 18-year-olds, who too often have no better choices than to blow themselves up on a crowded bus.

Talk of a cease-fire, brokered by Egyptian mediators, is encouraging, but Israel has not agreed to stop targeted killings of Hamas leaders and the Palestinian Authority has little power to stop terrorist attacks. Given this situation, expectations must be kept low, warns Daniel Byman, an assistant professor in the security studies program at Georgetown University. The United States is right to pressure Israel not to retaliate and to support Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas as he tries to suppress suicide bombings and other attacks. But given Mr. Abbas’ lack of control over militant groups and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s statements that he will not compromise on protecting Israel’s security, there is little to hope for beyond this.

Much more effort should be devoted to empowering the region’s moderates, especially moderate Muslims. If the region’s young people saw they had a role to play in their country’s future, they would likely be more inclined to stick around to see that future. Their role may be to go to school on a regular basis or to take a job and earn money to support a family, activities many take for granted but that are virtually impossible given the constant fighting and crackdowns that now characterize the Palestinian territories.

This won’t take a miracle to fix. Rather it requires a serious investment of capital and time. If some of the $3 billion the U.S. sends annually to Israel were instead spent in the Palestinian territories to establish businesses and schools, the cost of Israel’s security might drop dramatically. There are many more moderates in the territories than there are Hamas adherents. If these men and women saw a future for themselves and their children, they would be more inclined to work toward that future than to end it all in a hail of shrapnel. Making people’s live livable will go a long way toward weakening the appeal of extremist groups such as Hamas.

In the meantime, the road to peace remains under construction and the Bush administration should continue its high level of involvement. Some may argue that peace brokering efforts only lead to more killing in the region. On its face, this may appear true, but that is no reason to abandon efforts to break the cycle of violence, this time through the road map endorsed by the United States, United Nations and the European Union. If the trip never begins, there is no hope of ever reaching the desired destination.