The occupiers’ hope that the killing of the two sons would neutralise the people’s motivation for continued resistance is as wrong as the initial assumption that those who planned the attacks were no more than the remnants of the Saddam regime and of the Baath Party. The awaited hope that the capture of Saddam will have the greatest effect on ending the resistance will prove, once it happens, more disappointing.

This round in Washington is going to end nearly like all the previous ones. A summary can be typed ahead of time. A little hint of dispute, and a lot of public understanding between the Israeli and American leaders. There’s always some punch line by a spinner, whether local or distant. This time it is: “There’s no separation fence between Bush and Sharon.” Hats off to the creative flack.

As he approaches the twilight of his political career, Israel’s prime minister contemplates his one last remaining task. It is the fulfillment of a lifelong ambition, one that he several times has sought and that several times has eluded him: the achievement of Israel’s long-term moral and existential security by eradicating a unified Palestinian national movement. He feels he is closer than ever to achieving his goal. The Palestinian polity is beginning to disintegrate. A generation of Palestinian leaders have been killed or imprisoned. Step by step, Palestinians will have to begin thinking of themselves not as Palestinians but as Gazans or West Bankers, Nabulsis or Hebronites and as insiders or outsiders.

The deaths of three American soldiers yesterday, men from the same division which killed Saddam Hussein’s sons, are an early blow to American hopes that resistance to occupation will fade now these key leaders of the former regime are dead. Five Americans have died since Tuesday, and 11 in the last week, the highest rate of killing since the war officially ended.

The first act of Belgium’s new government was to move to abrogate the 1993 “universal jurisdiction” law that allowed the trial in Belgium of any case involving war crimes and crimes against humanity anywhere in the world.  Only one trial has been conducted under this law, resulting in the conviction of four Rwandans for participation in their country’s 1994 genocide. But ever since survivors of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres brought a case in Brussels against Ariel Sharon and other Israelis, Israel’s apologists have campaigned against it.  Last April, under strong US pressure, Belgium changed its law so any case against a foreign leader would first be referred to the authorities of the leader’s country. This was to reassure the US that Belgian courts would not be a venue for ‘political’ proceedings against American officials. But it did not.

The full list of lies they told the people about weapons of mass destruction in order to carry out their pre-determined plan to invade Iraq, and the lies they told to evade responsibility when the weapons weren’t found.