The European Union External Relations Commissioner, Mr Chris Patten, has accused Israel of hijacking the US-led war on terror and said its crushing use of force against Palestinians would prove counter-productive.
Mr Patten told BBC Television's Breakfast with Frost programme that Israel had effectively destroyed President Yasser Arafat's fledgling Palestinian Authority during its rolling re-occupation of West Bank towns and refugee camps.
"One of the real tragedies of this is that the Israeli government hijacked the campaign against terrorism and they have given some people the excuse for disengaging from that campaign," Mr Patten said. Israeli politicians have frequently said they are waging a conflict similar to Washington's war on terrorism following the September 11th attacks on US cities.
But Mr Patten said the Israeli attacks were targeting the Palestinians' self-rule infrastructure, not the militants.
"They destroyed the ministry of education, they've destroyed the ministry of finance - that has nothing to do with trying to deal with suicide bombers," he said.
"If you don't have a Palestinian Authority the only alternative is Palestinian anarchy." The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, on the same programme, said Israel's actions had "driven a big wedge between sections of the Arab world and the West". - (Reuters)