"Bush deserves to go down in history as a US president who has worsened it immeasurably by wholly abandoning even the pretence that the US should act as an impartial referee in the Arab-Israeli dispute.

Instead, by taking the brakes off Israel entirely, he emboldened a weak government containing a few hard men – an unfortunate combination – to go for broke and try to crack Hamas once and for all. We can only hope a change in the White House will bring about an end to the policy of offering Israel unreserved support, restore a degree of fairness to America's Middle Eastern diplomacy and prompt a more proactive attitude on the part of the US in general.

Nothing else will encourage Palestinians to have any store in peace negotiations, or offer any prospect that Gaza's dreadful nightmare can be ended.

...Independent