One of the most chilling moments of the negotiations between Israel and the Yasser Arafat-led Palestine Liberation Organization came when Arafat’s security forces turned their guns on Israeli Jews. One of the reasons it was so chilling is that the violence wasn’t entirely the result of Arafat’s flawed character or of a miscalculation by Israel’s democratically chosen government. It resulted in part from a decision by America to train for the terrorist leader a group of loyal gunmen. Some of the training was done in Philadelphia, so that the shooters became known, in some quarters at least, after the mayor of the City of Brotherly Love, Edward Rendell, as Rendell’s Rifles. Not that Mr. Rendell didn’t have good intentions.

All the more cautionary the tale for the new American secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, as she embarks on a new effort, much in the style of her predecessors in the Clinton administration, to mediate a peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. She yesterday named an American military officer, Lieutenant General William Ward, to act as “security coordinator.” And she vowed to “help with the consolidation of security and the rebuilding of the Palestinian security forces.” If Ms. Rice isn’t careful, before long we’ll be referring to Rice’s Rifles, and regretting once again that America armed terrorist killers.

President Bush has been signaling that things are different this time around. In his State of the Union address last week, he referred to democratic elections in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Iraq, and the Palestinian Arab territories. But one of those elections was not like the others. In the Palestinian territories, the election took place only after the existing dictator, Arafat, died. The election elevated a close aide to Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas. It took place in the absence of a free press and with low turnout. Mr. Bush seems not to acknowledge these distinctions; yesterday, he said of Mr. Abbas, “He has been through an election; he was endorsed by the Palestinian people.” Ms. Rice even went so far yesterday as to use the lopsided nature of Mr. Abbas’s “election” as evidence of his strength. “In the Palestinian national elections, President Abbas got numbers that would have made any American president extremely happy,” she said. Too many people seem to have forgotten that Arafat was elevated after a similar sham election. He brought us Rendell’s Rifles.

Mr. Abbas’s moves so far have been discouraging. As Carolyn Glick reported in the Jerusalem Post, “in one of his first ‘law enforcement’ actions, Abbas instructed the PA’s mufti to speed up the process of executing the 51 Palestinians who have been sentenced to death by Palestinian ‘courts.’ At least seven of those 51 were convicted of the capital crime of ‘collaborating’ with Israel.”

Israel and its democratically elected government may choose various tactical approaches to Mr. Abbas and the Palestinian situation in an effort to stem losses. But the Israelis should have the freedom to do so without pressure from an America that seems not to have fully absorbed the lessons of its mistakes.