MIDDLE EAST: The Yemeni president protested against the Israeli invasion of West Bank towns this week by retreating to his farm on the Red Sea and asking to be left on his own. Ali Abdallah Saleh, the ruler of the country the US fears would turn into the next safe haven for al-Qaeda militants, had much to be depressed about.
Barely a week previously at the Arab League summit in Beirut, he had backed the Saudi proposal to offer Israel security and normal ties with all states in the region if it ended its occupation of Arab lands. For several months after September 11th, he had defied anti-US sentiment in the country to co-operate closely with Washington.
Now Mr Saleh has to confront an enraged population demanding pressure on Israel, not peace offers, and lambasting the US for siding with Israel.
"The best thing for the president to do is to keep quiet. There isn't much he can do and he doesn't want to complicate the situation," said one official. "He's gone into seclusion."
The Yemeni leader's disillusionment is shared by other Arab rulers, particularly the moderates, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt. Hardline states including Syria and Iraq, which were uneasy about the Saudi proposal, are now much more vocal.
"What is most incomprehensible about America's cavalier attitude is that it pushes Arab and Muslim public opinion into the hands of the hardliners those who say that full-scale war against Israel is the only answer, or, like Iraq, that there should be an oil embargo against the US," said an editorial in Saudi Arabia's Arab News, the English-language daily.
"Public anger at the US has never been so great. The outrage is such that people will now believe the worst reports of American intentions."
In demonstrations across the region, Arabs have demanded that leaders withdraw the Saudi peace proposal, punish the US, and put their vast defence spending to good use by supplying weapons to Palestinians and opening their borders for volunteer fighters.
Jordan and Egypt, both of which have peace agreements and diplomatic ties with Israel, have come under unprecedented pressure to downgrade relations. Cairo yesterday responded by cutting government.
In Jordan, the picture of Osama bin Laden has appeared in some demonstrations.
Arab leaders "are at the lowest ebb of their credibility", said Prof Walid Kazziha, professor of political science at the American University in Cairo. "On Arabic TV stations, the first thing the man in the street says is: 'What are these Arab governments, what are these Arab leaders doing?' "
Mr Sharon has said Israel's military campaign is designed to uproot the infrastructure of terrorism. But in the Arab world, Mr Sharon is suspected of seeking to destroy the 1993 Oslo peace accords.
Whatever the aims, the fact that Saudi Arabia rallied the region around a peace proposal was a measure of the limited pressure tools the Arabs have or are willing to use in this conflict. No Arab state can confront Israel's military superiority or risk retaliation by allowing volunteers to join the fight.
Arab analysts say if the escalation continues in the West Bank, Lebanon's Hizbollah could be pushed to join the Palestinian uprising. Most likely and damaging to the West is the heightened radicalisation already evident in the Arab world.
"This situation is probably going to expand radical elements, whether these are Islamic bin Ladenist kind of elements or left-wing, nihilist groups," said Mr Kazziha.
Demonstrations continue in the Middle East and elsewhere. Lebanese police beat protesters and sprayed them with tear gas in an attempt to break up a demonstration in Beirut.
In Indonesia, rallies were staged in at least three major cities, while in Istanbul hundreds of left-wing Turks protested in front of Israel's consulate.
In Belgium, two Molotov cocktails were thrown at a synagogue in Antwerp early yesterday, causing minor damage and no reported injuries.
- (Financial Times, Reuters)