BUSH IN ISRAEL SAYS EPIC BATTLE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL - WHO IS GOOD AND WHO IS EVIL?

George Bush said it again, he believes the forces of good are in an epic battle with the forces of evil in the Middle East. In his view, Israel and the United States represent the forces of light, but Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran (not to mention Hugo Chavez) act as the forces of darkness.

In this Manichean scheme, Bush's foreign policy centers on killing the (Islamic ?) evil-doers and praising virtuous Americans and Israelis.

Suppose you were a Palestinian 10-year old in Gaza. How would you like to be called an evil-doer and a force for darkness? Or have your mother and father so characterized?

The Israeli-Palestinian situation cannot be so easily resolved into good versus evil. Some Palestinians shoot missiles into Israel which kill innocent Israeli civilians. But some Israelis support the Israel Defense Forces which shoot missiles into homes in Gaza or fire tank shells that explode with steel darts that kill innocent Palestinians.

To build American foreign policy on such black/white thinking between good and evil in the way that George Bush has is to risk having a simplistic U.S. foreign policy that alienates people of good will all over the world and makes them enemies of Americans.