The U.S. media's coverage of the conflict in Palestine is a sorry, disgraceful joke. Muzzled by AIPAC, ADL and other pro-Zionist organizations, most "mainstream" journalists live in fear of being labeled anti-semitic. Hence their resistance to reporting the unsavory details of Israel's brutal (and often murderous) occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Criticism of Israel is considered a career killer in most news rooms, more so now that Israel and Ariel Sharon have co-opted George W. Bush's "war on terrorism" crusade as justification for further acts of aggression against the Palestinian people.

It is clear from listening to Bush's "Israel uber alles" speech yesterday that he will continue to ignore Palestinian pleas for independence, while cheerfully accepting his role as Sharon's chief public relations spokesman. Instead of demanding that Israel withdraw from the occupied territories and remove its settlements -- leveraging his demands with the threat of a complete cutoff of military and economic aid -- he has turned the mugged into the muggers and the muggers into the mugged. While 600,000 Palestinians were being forced into their homes by a 24-hour military curfew, and while tanks and armored personnel carriers roamed the streets shooting at anyone who moved, Bush lectured the Palestinian Authority about "acts of terrorism," oblivious to the daily terror that Palestinian families confront as they try to survive and earn a livelihood under the jackboot of a racist theocracy and its U.S.-subsidized military machine.

Bush and Sharon's path of military occupation and force of arms will merely produce more bloodshed in the region. At a time when bold leadership is so desperately needed in Washington, the president has morphed into saber-rattling would-be emperor who has chosen to fight terrorism by embracing his and Sharon's own brand of barbarity.