Every day is bringing new headlines--or rather, the same old headlines, telling of new horrors and more dead bodies--in the Middle East. The cycle of violence that a policy of mass retribution inevitably creates has been slowly, inexorably gathering momentum since the resumption of Palestinian uprisings in fall 2000. The Bush Administration, before and after September 11, stood by and did nothing (save the usual "stern condemnations"). So far as the Palestinians, Muslims, and most of the rest of the world, are concerned, it might as well have been Bush himself flying the helicopters, dropping the bombs, launching the missiles, driving the bulldozers, building new highways and settlements, slinging around stray bullets, closing the checkpoints, shutting off the electricity and water, squeezing ever harder until the whole thing burst.

It wasn't, of course; the Likud-dominated government of Ariel Sharon has its own logic, one that mystifies people in Washington nearly as often as in the world's other capitals. But while the tendency of Americans is to shake our heads in sadness when we see the evening news, and wonder why "those people over there" are at it again, people in the United States need to realize that this is our war, too. Israel is by far the largest foreign recipient of U.S. taxpayer money; it goes to both military and economic purposes. Money from private U.S. sources also plays a huge role in the Israeli economy, especially in times of crisis, when foreign investors get skittish. Many of the most fanatical Zionist "settlers" are current or former U.S. citizens, emigrating to Israel in fulfillment of their religious beliefs. When, say, Muslims watch Al-Jazeera or some local, state-controlled channel, and see the appalling conditions under which ordinary Palestinians are being forced to live, and die, they see the United States at work. It is only in this country that the policies of the Israeli government seem distant from our own.

To some extent, word is trickling back. As happened with Central American solidarity groups in the mid-'80s, a lot of peace activists are making trips to the West Bank and/or Gaza these days, and coming back and telling their stories. Many Palestinians find themselves in nearly unimaginable circumstances--under occupation by a military that, beyond its capacity to inflict random death, capriciously controls every aspect of peoples' lives, including whether they can work, shop, go to school, get access to medical care, or even get access to the food banks and other foreign aid keeping many people alive. (Every funeral is politicized, with thousands attending, in part because there's nothing else to do that would conflict--no jobs, no schools, no daily lives to lead.)

Those stories, beamed around the world, are fueling global outrage at Israeli government policies--not just the military attacks, but the full range of brutality and humiliations being inflicted upon a people. There are, of course, Israeli stories as well; and these stories, of fear and insecurity and rage, are what tend to get told in US media. War would not be war without horror on all sides. But as yet another high-level American delegation travels to the Middle East this weekend, hoping against faint hope to at least get the various sides talking with each other, the very language of a possible road to peace reveals the stark contrasts in power. It is the Israeli government that issues demands, offers concessions, and is watched carefully for speeches or internal divisions that might give hints as to what, if any, plan might be in place for a long-term solution. The Palestinians can offer nothing, because they have nothing; they can demand nothing, even though they need everything; they have no long-term strategy, because tomorrow is a question.

Israel calls the shots, figuratively and literally. And while the dangers posed by suicide bombers, and the crude attempts by Hamas and other groups to fight back, are very real, they are the actions of individuals, not a government. The nature of Israeli policy--segregating and subjugating a whole people--sometimes invites facile, and misleading, comparisons to South Africa or even Nazi Germany. That's wrong--the Middle East has its own dynamic--but it's important to remember that just about every totalitarian or even genocidal state ratcheted up its depredations gradually, and justified them as necessary for state security and to protect ordinary citizens against some presumably dangerous "other." (Usually identified by race or religion, invariably classified as criminals.)

That process is visibly underway in Israel. What is obvious, even in this country, is that outside Israel itself only the United States has the leverage to force the Sharon government to stop. What is obvious outside this country is that the world is also associating the United States with Sharon's abuses--an association that, in a time of Islamic jihads and the "War On Terrorism," carries obvious risks for every US citizen. And as visitors return from that troubled land, with stories of horror and degradation and bullets and shrapnel paid for by our tax dollars, what will hopefully become more obvious is that each of us has a responsibility to demand that the US government act. Washington has, for too long, financed and defended this brutal occupation; Washington must now bring it to an end, and each of us needs to let the White House and Congress know that we want it to end now--before more of those same old headlines, and bodies, pile up.