A cost incurred by Gaza

Mehdi Shakibayi: Recent Israeli escalation in Gaza has a definite link with US President George Bush's visit to the region so much so that it is very likely the Gazans would endure much more violent attacks in the few days to come.

Bush has been witnessing his Middle East policy train off track in recent months and revealed his desperate mood during his recent visit to ME by giving an uneven share to the countries he stopped in or planned to stop.

Bush also received frustrating signals from the people and governments in the countries he visited. Saudi Arabia expressly refused to recognize Israel and the people in Bahrain greeted him with protests.

Bush was also demoted by serious allies like Kuwait and Egypt whose leaders declared they are ready to visit Tehran for further ties with the powerhouse Islamic Republic of Iran.

And Arab League apparently dealt a further blow to him by announcing a consensus on the part of its member countries to set Damascus, capital of Syrian Arab Republic as venue for the next year's edition of AL meeting.

White House now faces a batch of botched plans Bush was expected to carry out in the Middle East much to the anxiety of the Republicans who now find part of their presidential campaign in tatters.

Bush could not push the so-called moderate forces in Middle East into a united front against Iran or the Arabs as a whole into a consensus over the minutes of the Annapolis confab.

Washington is now in acute need of a stimulus to pull Arabs to negotiating table and rekindle its cozy relations with them and it probably looks for one in Gaza.

The White House officials look now intended to help trigger a resurgence of critical situation in the besieged Palestinian areas in a bid to extract a plea from the regional countries for mediation. They also look sure to have prepared a few preconditions for any initiative, all aimed to recover their botched plans.