NEVERTHELESS, NO ONE should believe that Madrid will see enough good will to make friends of old enemies. Israel, Syria and the PLO--oops, I meant the Palestinians--are not going to sit down at a table and discover that they are really all nice people after all.

Let it not be forgotten that this conference exists only because the United States twisted lots of arms. Assad does not want to make peace with Israel, but, with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, he needs a new patron to prop up his dictatorship, and America has made this conference a condition for assuming that role.

...and discover that they are really all nice people after all.

Shamir would contradict his lifelong ideology and his promises to his electorate if he gave up territory, but he desperately needs U.S. economic aid to absorb a wave of Soviet immigration that could raise his country's population by 25 percent in less than three years, and so he, too, is at the table.

But unless someone has a realistic plan to bridge differences in Madrid, nothing prevents these reluctant healers from bleeding the patient. For some unfathomable reason, a plan is just what the American orchestrators say they don't want to have. Calling the conference and showing up with no proposals, hoping that the parties will develop their own, is not very different from convincing vegetarians to attend a barbecue and expecting them to bring the meat.

Perhaps someone will rise to history's challenge in Madrid, propose a bold new plan, show willingness to compromise, and the Nobel committee can start writing invitations to Shamir, Assad and Arafat. At this point, however, we couldn't even know whether Assad would shake Shamir's hand at the award ceremony.