While gruesome pictures from the Holy Land are splashed all over the media, what is really going on among those who hold power is not war but politics. Barak and Arafat may curse each other, but it is President Clinton who wields the greatest power because both Israel and the emerging Palestine are essentially American protectorates. Franz Schurmann has written on Middle East issues since the late 1970s. He is professor emeritus at UC Berkeley.

The great German general of the early 1800's Karl von Clausewitz wrote "war is just politics by other means." His spirit, now beholding the carnage in the Holy Land, must be musing "how true."

There is not much room in Israel and Palestine for genuine wars like "Desert Storm" of 1991. So the conflict takes the form of savage cruelty among humans abetted by politicians. The central figures now are not generals but politicians. On the Israeli side it's a general turned politician, Ehud Barak. On the Palestinian side it's a terrorist turned politician. The question therefore is not what do the two peoples involved want but what the two politicians want.

Barak's support in the Knesset is melting as quickly as an ice cube in Saudi Arabia. Yet he is ready to go to the summit at Sharm as-Sheikh and work out deals that will affect all five million Jews and five million Palestinians in the region.

The same is true of Yaser Arafat. For decades he has been seen more in chic capitals than on Palestinian or Arab ground. He is not highly regarded among Arabs whatever their political stances.

When it comes to making deals, it is obvious that both listen more to one foreigner than to their own peoples. That's President Clinton.

So the question must be modified again to "what does Clinton want?" The answer is not that difficult to find.

Without a constant, eager support and big money from America there would be no State of Israel today. And without similar (though muted) support and less money from the Americans the Palestine Autonomous Authority would not exist either. Both entities are more protectorates of America than independent entities.

Israel was created in 1948 as the Cold War between the US and the USSR was beginning. Truman and Stalin both wanted to be the first to recognize the new Jewish state. Truman won. Israel became staunchly anti-Communist and was amply rewarded as America's favorite protectorate.

The Palestinian protectorate came in the 1980's, when the Islamic revolution in Iran showed how tenuous America's hold on oil-rich Saudi Arabia was. Arafat was quickly laundered by a few handshakes from Secretary of State George Shultz -- long connected with Bechtel Corporation, which built much of modern Saudi Arabia.

Again, after the US-led coalition's victory in the Gulf War, Secretary of State James Baker III -- who also had an extensive oil background -- picked Arafat as the man to work with Israeli prime minister, the late Yitzhak Rabin, to make the Middle East safe for oil.

The close connection between Israel and oil was widely known in the region, but the American media strictly segregated the two.

And while it seemed for a time that other oil powers like Iran or Iraq also had clout, by the late 1990's it became clear there only was one oil superpower, Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is also the world's religious superpower. It controls two of Islam's three holy sites, Mecca and Medina. Ever since Israel occupied Jerusalem in June 1967 the Saudis have said they would never tolerate Israeli sovereignty over the Dome of the Rock.

Now Islamic upheaval is spreading fast from Southeast Asia to West Africa. A second Iran has appeared with the Taliban victory in Afghanistan. The most wanted "terrorist" in the world is Osama Bin Laden -- from a wealthy Saudi family known everywhere in the kingdom.

This brief summary suggests an answer to the question what does Clinton want. Bill Clinton is the most active lame duck president America has ever seen. He wants the Democrats to win on November 7, he wants oil prices stabilized so the miraculous bull market can continue, and he wants a firm agreement between Barak and Arafat that will keep the Holy Land secular and stable for the indefinite future.

These three wants are linked. A peace agreement, no matter how threadbare, will bring oil prices down fast. The Democrats are likely to benefit most politically from this. The Saudis will be quite happy if Israel agrees to give up sovereignty over the holy sites and ecstatic if they surrender all of East Jerusalem.