The first thing we did when reports started moving from Israel that Yasser Arafat was holding out for a victory by Senator Kerry was to put in a call to our political correspondent, Josh Gerstein, in Boston. He turned out to be at a reception of Jewish activists attending the convention. He sent back a wire saying Mr. Kerry’s campaign spokesmen were seeking comment, but meantime the national director of the Jewish Democratic Council, Ira Forman, said: “Chairman Arafat is going to be sorely disappointed if he thinks he’s going to get some kind of pass from the next administration. Kerry’s going to kick Arafat all over the place.”

“Didn’t happen in the last Democratic administration,”we cabled back. Governor Clinton made all kinds of promises in respect of Israel, but when he got to the White House, he assigned — or allowed — Secretary of State Albright to mount a campaign of denigration of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Mr. Clinton made the mistake of taking counsel from figures in the Jewish communal leadership who wanted the administration to pressure Israel into being more forthcoming in negotiations with the Palestinian Arabs. Mr. Clinton received Mr. Arafat often in the White House.

What a contrast with Mr. Clinton’s successor. President Bush came into office not long after the accession of Prime Minister Sharon, a man Mr. Bush clearly respects. Mr. Bush decided early on that he wasn’t going to treat with Mr. Arafat, who hasn’t been in the White House even once under Mr. Bush. Mr. Bush established as a precondition for Palestinian Arab participation the emergence of a democratic government that eschewed terror. Mr. Bush hasn’t kept his promise to begin on the first day of his administration the move of the American embassy to Jerusalem. But he has kept his strategic commitments.

This is a period during which Mr. Sharon, either as head of a national unity government or of his own rightist coalition, has slain scores of the enemy figures pressing the campaign of suicide bombings against Jewish civilian targets. There has rarely been a complaint from the administration. No doubt the Islamic terror attacks on America have tended to clarify everyone’s perception, including Mr. Kerry’s, that Israel and America are in the same war.

Mr. Kerry recently flopped over to Israel’s side on the question of the fence, after flipping toward Mr. Arafat. But given the record of the past two administrations, and of the advisers with whom Mr. Kerry is surrounding himself, we don’t doubt reports about Mr. Arafat’s belief that he stands a better chance of being brought back into the equation if the man in the White House is Mr. Kerry.