Prime Minister Olmert is misleading his country when he speaks of a Saudi peace plan for Israel and the Palestinian Arabs that does not exist and of meetings with Saudi leaders that no one, least of all the Saudis, has proposed.

Similarly, Secretary of State Rice’s latest round of shuttle diplomacy, during which she crisscrossed the Middle East in pursuit of her own nonexistent peace plan, confirms that America’s foreign policy is running on empty.

America is facing some pretty serious problems in the Middle East: a war on Islamic terror; the Iraqi mess; Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons; oil prices rising on the Iranian capture of British sailors; and the disintegration of Afghanistan.

For Ms. Rice to push all these existential challenges aside in favor of bridging gaps between a nonexistent Palestinian Arab entity and an Israeli prime minister whose approval rating is hovering around 20% is disingenuous — particularly as she is doing so based on a pie-in-the-sky Saudi peace plan.

Even before the Arab League summit last week in Riyadh, which revived the same lame 2002 Saudi peace proposal — under which the Arab states would officially recognize Israel in exchange for the “right of return” of some 4 million Arabs who left Palestine in 1948 — Mr. Olmert was sounding giddy.

Desperate for some success after his disastrous conduct of last summer’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Israeli leader said in multiple interviews that he looked “very favorably” on the “active role” Saudi Arabia is playing in the Arab-Israeli dispute. He told Time magazine on Thursday that the Saudi king, Abdullah, would be “very surprised” to hear his opinion of the Saudi peace plan.

But King Abdullah has never proposed a meeting with Mr. Olmert. In fact, Saudi officials, including the foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, have made it very clear that this is a take it or leave it proposition that includes nothing up close and personal — no handshakes and no face-to-face meetings.

The Saudis and other Arabs believed, quite correctly, that there was no way the Israelis, including the optimistic Mr. Olmert, could accept a plan that would threaten the Jewish character of Israel with a sudden infusion of Muslim Palestinian Arabs.

As this delusional peace talk was being bandied about, Israeli security and military officials were warning that Hamas is building up arms, rockets, fighters, and ammunition in Gaza, complete with Iranian training in Hezbollah-style guerrilla warfare, which Israel was introduced to last summer in Lebanon — in the war Mr. Olmert lost.

Meanwhile, at the Arab League summit in Riyadh, a group of Arab leaders who should have shown great concern about a resurgent Iran, a huge war in Iraq, Sunni-Shiite bloodletting, and a looming civil war in Lebanon instead found nothing better to do than focus on an impossible plan for peace with Israel — a peace they do not wish to see.

There is a lot to be said here for the power of delusion among Arabs, Americans, and Israelis. The only people who seemed properly focused on reality were the Muslim fundamentalists and their preachers.

In a debate broadcast March 20 on Lebanon’s New TV, three prominent Arab fundamentalist leaders debated the merits of suicide bombings and the killing of civilians.

The most prominent among them, Sheik Gamal al-Banna of Egypt, said, “Martyrdom operations in Palestine, in particular, are justified.” He explained that in Israel, there is no such thing as a civilian, as all Israelis, including women and children, are part of a military society.

Sheik Banna, who is a major theoretician for the genocidal Muslim Brotherhood, said: “When I say ‘soldiers,’ the entire Israeli people is recruited. The women are the most vicious of them all. Therefore, this is justified.”

He also said suicide bombers are heroes and martyrs. “I consider this to be martyrdom,” he said. “Even if they harm a woman, all the women serve in the army. All the men serve in the army. Only the small children remain, and the fact is that these are only very rarely harmed. I believe that these are martyrdom operations, and are necessary.”