Prime Minister Sharon will be the world’s darling when he arrives at the United Nations in mid-September for Turtle Bay’s annual meeting of heads of state, and the kudos will delight many Israelis.

World leaders are already lining up for a photo opportunity with Mr. Sharon, whom some of them until recently considered a war criminal – or worse. The prime minister undoubtedly will try to harness the global goodwill to strengthen Israel’s foreign ties and improve its public relations.

The Arab-language daily Asharq al-Awsat reports that President Mubarak has planned to meet with Mr. Sharon after an assured victory in Egypt’s lightly contested presidential election. President Chirac, facing a campaign for his own re-election in France, hosted Mr. Sharon recently in Paris in a manner reserved only for the best of friends.

The adoration from other international heads of state won’t win Mr. Sharon another term: Sooner or later, he must address the concerns of Israeli voters. After years of hearing criticism from abroad, they welcome the kind gestures coming from what even Tel Avivians now call “the international community.” Yet they recognize that such nods to their country have little to do with the emotion celebrated Saturday on Tu B’av, the ancient Jewish holiday of love.

In 1981, after deciding to raze Jewish settlements in Yamit as part of a peace treaty with Egypt, and on the eve of a crucial election, Prime Minister Begin chose to attack the Iraqi nuclear plant at Osirak. After much condemnation, voices from other corners of the globe conceded that it was the right move. Will Mr. Sharon now attack Iran? Probably not, but having worked under Begin and other historic lions of Zionism, the current prime minister knows that foreign appreciation buys little security for Israel and wins only short-term favor with Israeli voters.

Behind the international compliments for Mr. Sharon lies a premise that the real answer to the region’s ills is further Israeli retreat. This week, bulldozers will turn into rubble what once were homes with children, gardens, and pets. Palestinian Arabs, and others around the world, have already started to lay the groundwork to excuse the impending failure by the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, to create a model state there.

The Gaza cluster of Jewish settlements that Israel evacuated unilaterally last week, Gush Katif, was built 38 years ago on empty dunes. The beautiful settlers’ homes that critics have derisively described as “isles of luxury” did not replace thriving Arab communities. They were erected in an unsettled space. Mr. Abbas should try to build an Arab equivalent of Gush Katif on what is now – once again – a series of vacant lots. Gush Katif settlers proved that the area’s land is arable. Its Mediterranean beaches could become a tourism destination. Can Mr. Abbas avoid the easy trap of turning on Israel the onus of the continuing misery of his people?

The least Israelis expect – although most probably dare not hope for it – is that the evacuation that threatens to tear their country apart from within will be rewarded by a measure of peace. Israel security officials last week said they recorded the lowest number of mortar attacks from Gaza in years. Over the weekend, however, mortars began to return, and yesterday the head of the internal security service, Yuval Diskin, warned in the weekly Cabinet meeting that the calm is not expected to last. It cannot even be interpreted as a sign that Mr. Abbas has gained control over Palestinian Arab armed factions, he said.

Last week Mr. Mubarak told a visiting Knesset member, Collette Avital of Labor, that he expects the terrorist organization Hamas to shortly morph into a fully political party competing for Gaza votes. The dovish Ms. Avital told me that she had a problem with that notion. Like Hezbollah in Lebanon, she said that told Mr. Mubarak, presenting a fully armed group as just another political party is misleading. In any case, no one expects Hamas and other terrorist factions to be disarmed any time soon. So even if Mr. Abbas wants it, he cannot guarantee that anti-Israeli violence – Gaza’s political trump card – would wane.

In addition to the compliments for his quick success in Gush Katif, Mr. Sharon will likely be urged by world leaders visiting Turtle Bay to commit political suicide by moving to dismantle more West Bank settlements. He will also be asked to ease security measures around Gaza, meant to assure some calm Mr. Abbas does not even claim to guarantee. Mr. Sharon will take the compliments, and, I hope, ignore the advice.