Middle East Follow

George W Bush has given Israel the signal to unleash all-out war on the Palestinians. Last week he backed the menacing presence of Israeli troops around the offices of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Arafat is now a prisoner of those forces, his every move tracked and controlled by his enemies.

HOW MUCH more can the Palestinian people suffer? Israel has launched its harshest incursion since the Intifida began 16 months ago. This comes after Israel used US-supplied F16 jets to destroy the Palestinian police headquarters in the town of Tulkarm on the West Bank last Friday. Israeli tanks and troops seized Tulkarm, imposing curfews, checkpoints and house to house searches, forcing people from their homes.

PRO-PALESTINIAN activists returned to top London store Selfridges last Saturday. Before Christmas the store agreed to stop stocking goods labelled "Made in Israel" which had been made illegally in occupied Palestinian territories. The store's bosses came under huge pressure to restock the goods. The Israeli ambassador in London toured the shop.

TWO ISRAELI bulldozers rolled into the Palestinian refugee camp in Rafah in the Gaza Strip on Thursday of last week. Guarded by Israeli soldiers, they crushed the homes of 112 families, leaving over 600 people homeless, around half of them children. The Israelis also tore up the runway of Gaza airport.

Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister, is holding Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat hostage in his own home. And the US backs this to the hilt. Israeli tanks surrounded Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Thursday of last week. They were still keeping him trapped as Socialist Worker went to press.

The escalation of violence in the Middle East over the last two weeks has led to calls for the leaders of Israel and Palestine to sit down and resume peace negotiations. The Mirror's front page on Tuesday of last week showed pictures of Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Ariel Sharon unleashed the full force of the Israeli state against the Palestinian people on Monday of this week. The war criminal who is prime minister of Israel was given the green light for his bloody assault by US president George W Bush. "Israel has a right to defend itself and the president understands that," said Bush's official spokesperson.

Five boys from the same family torn to pieces. A Palestinian leader and two aides killed by a helicopter gunship. A murdered taxi driver. A 13 year old boy and a 15 year old shot dead. Political offices and security posts blown up in the Gaza Strip.

Tony Blair was cheered when he spoke at the Labour conference of taking action over the "slums of Gaza" and stressed that "the Palestinians must have justice". Yet during the war on Afghanistan Blair and Bush have allowed the Israeli state to launch a new and bloody reign of terror against the Palestinians.

"Saudi Arabia is a good and dependable friend to the civilised world." That is how Tony Blair referred to the West's key ally in the Middle East last week. The US is desperate to maintain that relationship with Saudi Arabia during the war on Afghanistan.

A brutal massacre carried out by a death squad. That is the only way to describe the Israeli army's attack on the Palestinian village of Beit Rima last week.

The discussions between Ariel Sharon, the new right wing prime minister of Israel, and leading figures of the Israeli Labour Party show how neither main Israeli party wants peace with the Palestinians.