My granddaughter Maya, an adorable 9-year-old, came back from her school wearing a T-shirt with the word ``Mediator'' on it.

She said she had been assigned to walk in the schoolyard during breaks and look for kids fighting with each other.

Then she would offer her mediation services.

Intrigued, I asked her to explain how it actually worked.

``First,'' she said, ``I sit down with them and listen to their complaints. This is pretty boring, because they keep telling you things that happened in the past, not necessarily related to the present problem. I want them to get to the point. But I found out that letting them whine is part of the solution.''

And then?

`Think again'

``Then I ask them to think again, and tell me honestly if they still stick to their position. This, by the way, I prefer doing with each of them alone; otherwise, in front of the other kid, they remain obnoxious. Sometimes it takes more than one break to do it.''

Speechless, I listened to this 9-year-old.

Why are we worried about our grandchildren, agonizing over the question of what kind of a world we're leaving them? They seem to be more prepared to take care of themselves than we were at their age.

``Then comes the most difficult part. I ask each of them to consider whether the other kid has a point.''

``I thought the most difficult part was the ruling,'' I said.

``Not really,'' said Maya. ``Sometimes I don't even have to rule. They just get it by themselves.''

Invitation to join Maya

President Barack Obama should come to Amirim School at Ramat Hasharon, Israel, and join Maya on one of her mediation tours.

Seriously, it would be a good use of his time. I think it would contribute a lot to America's conduct in the Middle East.

For what we see today is the worst of all possible worlds. Each side turned to the United States for mediation, hoping that it will deliver the other side.

And each side is now equally frustrated.

The Palestinians, who had been complaining forever about the United States always siding with Israel, were happily surprised when President Obama launched his ``Engagement'' vision. Instead of the Bush administration's Arab bashing, they reasoned, here comes a new prince who will side with us.

Obama's Cairo speech only strengthened that impression.

Soon enough, Obama descended from his visionary rhetoric to the grim realities of the Middle East.

Much to his dismay, he discovered that one of the main obstacles to peace was the Arab's basic rejection of the Jewish state, not to mention the inability of the Palestinians to get their act together.

He then authorized Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to stand next to the beaming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and say that settlements were not an obstacle to peace.

There went the Arab trust.

Bad blood

The Israelis, on the other hand, who rejoiced when they heard that, mistakenly believing that American pressure on this issue is over, woke up to a new reality:

Instead of the warm relations Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert had with President Bush, there seems to be bad blood between Washington and Jerusalem today, with Benjamin Netanyahu hardly securing a meeting with President Obama during his recent trip to the United States.

In short, Israelis and Palestinians are not sure what Americans really want. They are not even sure Americans themselves know what they want.

This is not a way to become a credible mediator in this difficult region.

Maya's power, you see, derives from the fact that she is coherent, and she doesn't take sides. She is a girl, all right, and some boys may have heard what she also told me, that her instincts had almost always been to rule in favor of the girls, because ``they are usually right.''

Nevertheless, she is really perceived as an honest broker by the boys as well, because she doesn't impose on them what they feel is unjust.

She just helps them to get a better deal from their present situation without them losing face.

Even if she doesn't still know the terms, what she is actually doing is turning a zero-sum game into a win-win situation.

`Call us'

Tom Friedman suggested in The New York Times last week to dust off the lines of former Secretary of State James Baker, who, complaining in 1990 about the impasse in the Mideast, said: ``Everybody over there should know that the telephone number [of the White House] is 1-202-456-1414. When you're serious about peace, call us.''

I have a better idea. I am willing to give the White House Maya's number.

Instead of waiting for the Israelis and the Palestinians to call them, President Obama and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel should call her right away.

Maybe she has some useful ideas.

Uri Dromi is a columnist based in Jerusalem.