US-Israeli relations are quite something. Think intimacy, identification, and then some. Never have two countries been so close, indeed enamoured. The recent visit of President Bush to Israel, in which he participated in festivities marking the usurpation of Palestine and the creation of the Jewish state 60 years ago, was telling. If anything, this visit proves that everything the US and its current administration said so far about wanting to bring peace and stability to the Middle East was at best lip service and at worst a lie. The aim was to hoodwink the Arab world into thinking that Washington was a fair partner in peace. Bush's visit to Israel was unlike any official or cordial visit from the leader of the world's strongest country to another. He made a point of identifying with everything Israeli and Zionist, including Israel's crimes. In his speech at the Knesset, Bush said that the entire 300 million population of the US were behind Israel's seven million. When Israel has to face the forces of evil and terror, the number of the Israelis would be 307 million, he said. Waxing lyrical about Israel's achievements and democracy, the US president ignored the tragedy of the Palestinian people, thus maintaining a stand of racism against everything Arab and Muslim. Twisting history, ignoring facts and dispensing with moral niceties, Bush railed, eyes welling with tears, against suicide operations against Israel. Conveniently he omitted any mention of the Israeli planes and tanks that murder Palestinian women, children and the elderly. The latter had no place in Bush's compassion. Any lingering hope that the US would be a fair mediator in the Middle East is now clearly gone. Not even Israel's leaders, for all their fascism and racism, could rival Bush in his bias. The only consolation is that Bush is going to leave the White House soon, a man responsible for death and mayhem around the world and no more than in the Arab and Islamic region. Bush will be consigned to the darkest pages of history for he bears responsibility for millions of casualties -- dead and wounded -- in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is responsible also for the thousands of Americans killed in these wars that wouldn't have started but for his megalomania and thirst for oil and control. Will the Arabs take to heart the lessons of Bush's visit to Israel? Will those who wager on American freedom and democracy finally understand that these ideals have been trampled underfoot by George W Bush? The jury is still out on that one, but at least the American people are fed up with Bush's foolishness. His rating is now the lowest of all US presidents in history. Like all other enemies of humanity, Bush has failed and is now destined for the dust bin of history, where he belongs.
