US/MIDDLE EAST: President George Bush said yesterday that violence in the Gaza Strip was "troubling", while strongly reaffirming US support for Israel as an ally that shared a belief that God "valued every life".
Mr Bush spoke against a background of a major Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip in which 19 Palestinians, including two children, were killed as dozens of Israeli tanks and hundreds of troops swept through a refugee camp.
In a speech to a pro-Israel lobby group in Washington, Mr Bush said: "The unfolding violence in the Gaza Strip is troubling and underscores the need for all parties to seize every opportunity for peace."
Later the White House spokesman, Mr Scott McClellan, explained that the US "understood" Israel's reasons for the Gaza raid, which it said was to smash tunnels used to smuggle weapons under the border with Egypt.
At the same time Amnesty International in London accused Israel of war crimes in destroying 3,000 Palestinian homes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the last three years.
Mr Bush praised the plan of the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, to withdraw from Gaza as "a bold courageous step that can bring us closer to the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security."
The Palestinian people for their part "must reject corrupt and failed leaders, and insist on a leadership committed to reform and progress and peace" and renounce terror and violence.
"By taking these steps, they will have an opportunity, a fantastic opportunity to build a modern economy and create the institutions and habits of liberty.
"The United States is strongly committed, and I am strongly committed, to the security of Israel as a vibrant Jewish state," Mr Bush told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
"Israel is a democracy and a friend, and has every right to defend itself from terror."
The US and Israel had much in common, he went on. Both were founded by immigrants escaping religious persecution. "And we're both countries founded on certain basic beliefs: that God watches over the affairs of men, and values every life."
The "skill and heroism" with which Israel had defended itself against enemies and terrorists had earned the respect of the American people, said Mr Bush, who renewed his vow to confront "emerging terrorist threats . . . before they can reach our country and harm our people."
He also reiterated his goal of transforming Iraq into a free and democratic nation, at the heart of the Middle East.
"This will send a message, a powerful message, from Damascus to Tehran, that democracy can bring hope to lives in every culture."
He warned that the "hateful few" opposing the coalition in Iraq were growing more desperate as June 30th neared.
"Their goal is to undermine the will of our coalition and the will of America, and to drive us out before our mission is complete. They're not going to succeed. They will not shake the will of America."
Mr Bush also spoke against anti-Semitism. "The hatred of Jews did not die in a Berlin bunker," he said.
"In its cruder forms, it can be found in some Arab media, and this government will continue to call upon Arab governments to end libels and incitements.
"Such hatred can also take subtler forms. The demonisation of Israel, the most extreme anti-Zionist rhetoric can be a flimsy cover for anti-Semitism, and contribute to an atmosphere of fear in which synagogues are desecrated, people are slandered, folks are threatened.
"I will continue to call upon our friends in Europe to renounce and fight any sign of anti-Semitism in their midst," the President said.
At the same event the House majority leader, Mr Tom DeLay, said: "The survival of Israel is essential to America's victory in the war on terror, and America's victory in the war on terror is essential to Israel's survival."
Mr DeLay's comments were the latest in a number of policy gestures by both Republicans and Democrats towards the Jewish electorate in the run-up to the November elections.