Bush Cracks Down on Israel

According to Reuters, the Bush administration is withholding loan guarantees for Israel as a form of opposition to its policy of settlement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They are also considering some concrete form of action against the security barrier, which does not follow the Green Line, cutting through the occupied territories most believe consider the prospective Palestinian state. Similar actions by the first President Bush helped push Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir out of office and helped the Oslo peace process get moving, and one hopes this will have a similar result, forcing Israel to at least not make the situation worse for the Palestinians than it already is.