A growing number of counter-terrorism experts are challenging President Bush's assertion that Iraq is a major battle in the war against terrorism and are questioning whether the U.S. invasion of Iraq has hurt rather than helped the global battle against al-Qaida and its affiliates.

Experts who have served in top positions in both Republican and Democratic administrations are increasingly suggesting that the Iraq war has diverted momentum, troops and intelligence resources from the worldwide campaign to destroy the remnants of al-Qaida.

They note that the presence of U.S. troops in an Arab homeland is serving as a major recruiting tool for signing up and motivating new jihadis, or Islamic holy warriors.

"Things you have to believe to be a Republican today.”

Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez also insisted that the last fortnight, in which US forces have been conducting a military offensive against Iraqi guerrillas has been a "great two weeks" for the US-led coalition forces and for Iraq.

The general's upbeat views will surprise critics of the occupation, not least because he delivered them at the end of the deadliest month for the 130,000 American troops in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March.

At least 75 US soldiers were killed in Iraq in November, bringing the overall number of deaths among the troops to 440 since the start of the war. Around 300 of these are listed as having died in combat, almost four times the number of British soldiers to lose their lives.

The "great two weeks" also included the single bloodiest US military post-invasion loss - the collision of two Black Hawk helicopters in Mosul, which the army is now investigating to establish the accuracy of initial reports that one of them was hit by a surface-to-air missile. And in the latest attack on a partner in the US-led coalition, at least six members of a Spanish intelligence team were reported killed in an attack south of Baghdad yesterday.

Over the next three years, the United States will give Israel about $18 billion in loan guarantees and military and economic aid. American Jews provide hundreds of millions in additional support that allows private agencies to build thousands of housing units for Jewish settlers in the Occupied Territories. (Ironically, American money builds more affordable housing in the West Bank than in any of this country’s largest cities.)

The conflict is careening toward a conclusion that may well include the destruction of the Palestinians as a people and the wreckage of the historic Jewish commitment to justice.

On November 14 in an interview with the newspaper Yedioth Aharonoth , four former directors of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, called on Israel to end the occupation and to pursue a peace policy that would include negotiations with the Palestinians without first requiring an end to terrorism.