Netanyahu insists military action must go on

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Israel's defiance of the United States took centre stage as the former Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, flatly insisted Israel had to continue its military operations on the West Bank, despite George Bush's demands for an immediate withdrawal.

Likening the Palestinian suicide bombings against Israelis to the 11 September attacks on America, Mr Netanyahu told an audience of US senators: "If we do not shut down the human-bomb terror factories that [Yasser] Arafat is pioneering today, they will surely, as the light of day, reach the United States with greater and greater devastating force."

The reappearance of Mr Netanyahu, ostensibly as a spokesman of the current government led by his Likud successor, Ariel Sharon, is significant both for diplomatic reasons, and in terms of Israel's domestic politics.

Not only is it an indication of the tensions between Israel and the Bush administration – underlined by the fact he chose to deliver his uncompromising message on Capitol Hill, invariably even more warmly disposed to the Jewish state than the White House.

It also affords a highly visible platform for a politician who has regained all the popularity he had lost when he was defeated in 1999 by Ehud Barak – and whose ultra hardline views may now make him Mr Sharon's most dangerous challenger for prime minister in the elections next year. Mr Netanyahu curtly dismissed the current peace mission of Colin Powell, the Secretary of State, as doomed to failure.

Instead he set out his three-part formula for resolving the crisis: the deportation of Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader; an increased military campaign to destroy the Palestinian "terrorists" and their weapons; and the building of a wall or border that physically separates Israel from Palestinian areas. Mr Netanyahu said terrorism could only be dealt with by military means and that no credible ceasefire agreement could be reached with the Palestinian leader.