When told that the leaders of Germany, Britain and, most likely, France would boycott the opening Olympic ceremonies in Peking because of China's recent crackdown in Tibet, the US President George W. Bush's National Security Adviser, Stephen Hadley, described their decision as "a cop out" and offered a surprising response that seemed to run counter to the US stance in other regions, particularly the Middle East where some governments and groups remain untouchable.

"If (these) countries are concerned about that, they ought to do what we are doing through quiet diplomacy, send a message clearly to the Chinese that this is an opportunity with the whole world watching," Hadley said. "They would put pressure on the Chinese authorities quietly to meet with representatives of the Dalai Lama and use this as an opportunity help resolve that situation."

To date the Bush administration has shunned any direct talks with Syria and Iran or Hezbollah and Hamas, despite pleas to the contrary from various former senior US officials and groups including over a dozen draft resolutions in the US Congress urging engagement with Syria vis-a-vis the bloody turmoil in neighboring Iraq. As is the case often in the US, Israel is treated with deference.

For example, Bush is unlikely to give Israel a dressing down for its shoddy treatment of former president Jimmy Carter, who is on a fact-finding tour of the Middle East in the hope it would cast a positive influence on the stagnant Arab-Israeli peace process. Carter was boycotted by Israeli leaders, except Shimon Peres, the ceremonial president, and denied any security escort during his just-concluded visit there even when he visited Sderot, the target of recent Hamas rocket fire which Carter condemned. He also met with the parents of the Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who has been held in Gaza for two years.

"My hope is, although I'm not in a negotiation or mediation role, that we can induce the Palestinians, all of them, to have a ceasefire, and moved toward justice and peace," the former president said. His comment came at a time when the Palestinians in Gaza were coping with a stiff Israeli-imposed fuel blockade and continued bombardment.

This is probably one reason why Israel is barring the newly appointed UN official, Richard Falk, a professor emeritus at Princeton University, from investigating human rights abuses in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. He had compared Israeli actions in Gaza to those of the Nazis. His predecessor, John Dugard of South Africa, described the Israeli treatment as similar to apartheid.

Israelis ought not to forget that it was Carter who shepherded the first Arab-Israeli peace agreement which neutralized Egypt, the most powerful neighbor of Israel. For his critical role, he won the Nobel Peace Prize. However, a few Israelis stood up for the former president including the respected Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, which underlined in an editorial "Our (Israel's) debt to Jimmy Carter". It pointed out that Israelis do not like him because of his recent book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."

The editorial said, in part: "It is doubtful whether it is possible to complain when an outside observer, especially a former US president who is well versed in international affairs, sees in the (Israeli) system of separate roads for Jews and Arabs, the lack of freedom of movement, Israel's control over Palestinian lands and their confiscation, and especially the continued settlement activity, which contravenes all promises Israel made and signed, a matter that cannot be accepted.

"The interim political situation in the territories has crystallized into a kind of apartheid that has been going on for 40 years. In Europe there is talk of the establishment of a binational state in order to overcome this anomaly. In the peace agreement with Egypt, 30 years ago, Israel agreed to "full autonomy" for the occupied territories, not to settle there. These promises have been forgotten by Israel, but Carter remembers."

One of Carter's hair-raising objectives on his tour is a meeting this weekend with Khaleed Mesha'al, the political leader of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, who is domiciled in Damascus. Unlike the Bush administration and Israel, Carter believes that isolating Hamas is counterproductive; thereby volunteering to serve as a conduit between the group and the US and Israeli governments.

On the other hand, Bush, who was described by a former Israeli official this week in The New York Times, as "the greatest friend Israel has had in the White House", is expected to comply to heed to Israel's demands in the nuclear field. For one, the US has reportedly agreed to link Israel to its ballistic missile early warning system to warn off any missile attack from Iran. And yet, in one of two Op-Ed's on the subject, titled "The Holocaust Declaration", it was suggested that the US should commit itself publicly against any nuclear attack against Israel, now that Iran has announced it was installing 6,ooo additional centrifuges.

No wonder the latest University of Maryland/Zogby opinion poll within six key Arab states - Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates - 64 per cent held a "very unfavorable" attitude of the US, up from 57 per cent in late 2006. An additional 19 per cent had a "somewhat unfavorable" view of the US. This poll was conducted last March.