The prospect of a renewed Palestinian Arab-Israeli process is tempting for any ambitious would-be peacemaker. Shuttle diplomacy is a surefire headline-grabber, and Nobel Prizes were awarded to many who were unable, but tried, to bring peace.

Like everyone else, the United Nations is eager, as goes the current cliche, to seize on the new realities. Prime Minister-elect Abbas will soon present new policies, as Prime Minister Sharon reshuffles his coalition. Coincidently, Turtle Bay is going through a long-awaited house-cleaning of its own, with some longtime luminaries looking to position themselves more prominently.

The Norwegian Terje Roed-Larsen, who was the U.N. Middle East envoy for what seems like an eternity, is about to move to a new post in New York, where he will continue to advise Secretary-General Annan. Undersecretary-General for political affairs, Kieran Prendergast, a Brit, is said to be the leading candidate for Mr. Larsen’s old job. Beyond personnel, there might be some structural changes as well. One U.N. plan, sources tell me, is to create a new tier of three deputies under the Middle East envoy.

The game of musical chairs may turn out well. But first, the U.N. needs to recognize its limitations in the Arab-Israeli equation and that it could do more by lowering its profile. Polling results show that the U.N. reaps the lowest approval numbers by far among Israelis. With the General Assembly’s call for the reversal of Israel’s most successful antiterror measure, the security fence, none of this will change anytime soon.

Decades of institutional anti-Semitism and pro-Arab bias, as well as a spotty peacekeeping record that began in a hurried retreat from Gaza positions on the eve of the 1967 War and culminated in a cover-up on Israeli MIA’s in Lebanon, made sure the U.N. would be an unacceptable broker to any sane Israeli.

Any attempt by Mr. Annan and Mr. Larsen’s successor to reassert the U.N. as a leading player in the fictional “quartet” of Middle East peacemakers is doomed to fail. While U.N. diplomats are always received politely in the lower echelons of the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, serious leaders, as well as most Israelis, meet them either with yawns or sneers.

Nevertheless, Jerusalem policy-makers have always treated the refugee agency known as Unrwa carefully, despite its long track record of educating Palestinian Arabs for extremism and its now-admitted policy of employing terrorists (and a denied role in ignoring their activities). Israel also has relations with the U.N. force in Lebanon, known as Unifil.

Unrwa’s ousted head, Peter Hansen, has managed to raise the ire of even the most accommodating Israeli officials. They do, however, recognize the agency’s function as the only body that can tend to the humanitarian plight of the nearly 4 million people in its camps. On the other hand, as former U.N. Ambassador, Dore Gold puts it, Unrwa’s mere existence “prolongs the refugee issue.”

For Arabs, the issue is almost non-debatable. “It is the right of the refugees to return to their homeland,” was Mr. Abbas’s best campaign applause line. And as long as the interned population in the U.N.-ran camps continues to grow, the belief that suffering will end only by eliminating the Jewish state will intensify.

Unrwa claims that finding a political solution is beyond its mandate. Mr. Annan could help by using his bully pulpit to suggest that in three years, as the problem enters its seventh decade, Unrwa will be phased out. If by then no political solution is found, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, in addition to the Palestinian Authority, will have to absorb all camp residents.

Similarly, he should declare that Unifil, which was created to assure Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, has fulfilled its mission. Yesterday, a French peacekeeper was killed and a Dane was injured as a result of Hezbollah’s ritual policy of saber-rattling on the eve of the biannual renewal of the U.N. force’s mandate. More troops will be killed as long as Lebanon doesn’t take control of its territory.

The U.N., in other words, could help the region by reducing its presence, rather than doing the expected – adding new bureaucratic layers to assure a larger role in peacemaking. Paradoxically, this could help its image not only in Israel, but perhaps among Arabs as well.

Mr. Avni covers the United Nations for The New York Sun. He can be reached at bavni@nysun.com.