As they prepare for a military riposte against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan for harbouring Osama bin Laden, the United States and its allies are encountering major political problems in securing regional support. That the Israeli leader, Mr Ariel Sharon, should choose just this moment to launch an unprecedented attack on US policy for appeasing the Arab world shows a monumental lapse of judgment.
Yesterday it provoked one of the sharpest rebukes from the White House in the history of US-Israeli relations, when Mr Sharon's outburst was described as "unacceptable". President Bush and his advisors are furious with the Israeli leader, saying the Jewish state has no greater friend. Given that Mr Bush has pledged a worldwide campaign against terrorism he cannot understand why Mr Sharon should compare Israel to pre-war Czechoslovakia - and implicitly Mr Bush to Neville Chamberlain. The exchange has deeply divided Jewish opinion in the US and drawn savage criticism in some of the Israeli media.
If Mr Sharon's determination to pursue his conflict with the Palestinians significantly affects the US-led campaign against terrorism we could be in for a major realignment in Middle East politics. This would see the US and European states exerting much more pressure on Israel to withdraw from occupied territories, cease settlements there and pursue peace. They would expect the Israeli public to draw the necessary political conclusions and that Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt and Muslim ones such as Pakistan would appreciate their efforts sufficiently to sustain support during any operation in Afghanistan.
Mr Sharon's efforts to portray his Palestinian enemies as terrorists equivalent to those responsible for the atrocities in New York and Washington have failed. The Israeli foreign minister, Mr Shimon Peres, is reported to be on the brink of resigning after Mr Sharon banned further contacts with the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, and appears to have brought the ceasefire agreed last week to an end. The ferocious Israeli response yesterday to attacks on settlers left at least five dead and many stone-throwing children injured by gunfire. Mr Sharon says he will not lie down to terrorism. A solo run against the Palestinians by him could be as dangerous for stability as the Islamic fundamentalists suspected of organising the attacks on September 11th.
Speculation is intensifying that a military riposte directed against Osama bin Laden's bases in Afghanistan is imminent. Hence the fevered diplomacy of recent days by Mr Tony Blair in Moscow and Islamabad and by Mr Donald Rumsfeld in Riyadh, Muscat and Tashkent. It is accompanied by intensifying reports about plans to manage the transition to a new United Nations mandated government in Afghanistan should the Taliban regime fall. The enormous potential impact of a military attack on civilians and refugees makes this a crisis of the first magnitude, demanding careful targetting and proportionality in the military dimension, great diplomatic sensitivity and a huge humanitarian commitment. Mr Sharon has failed on all these counts.