Eric Margolis: Bush's Final Gift: Gaza

Just when we thought it was impossible for the calamitous George Bush and Svengali Dick Cheney to do any more damage to the world or to America's interests, they loosed one final Parthian shaft into the heart of the Mideast by giving Israel a green light to blitz Gaza and try to exterminate the Hamas movement.

The assault on Gaza, which has provoked worldwide outraged, was President Bush's parting gift to Israel.

According to Agence France Press, Bush even humiliated his useless secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, by ordering her to abstain at the United Nations on a ceasefire resolution she has helped draw up after Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert called the president and demanded the US not support the vote.

Osama bin Laden noted a few years ago that the 9/11 attacks on New York were in direct retaliation for Israel's brutal bombardment and destruction of downtown Beirut. Not surprisingly, the US media ignored this story.

Once again, America has covered itself with shame and hypocrisy. Shame and hypocrisy only exceeded by America and Israel's leading co-conspirator in the Gaza siege, Egypt, which has barred the only escape root from the hell of besieged, starving Gaza.