As I write Bush and Blair are wrapping up their White House Press Conference.

The good news - is that they are very slowly moving to stop the Israeli attack - and the Hizbullah rockets. They hope to get a resolution from the UN next week - so Israel may only have days to carry out further land and air attacks. There is a massing of Israeli troops happening right now - involving three more divisions including some crack troops. If they are going to go in - they will have to do so swiftly. Will they try to cross east to the Syrian border? Surely there is no time given how strong is the Hizbullah resistance? I hope this means Israel now does not have time to launch a major land offensive - but I am not sure. It all depends on what the US wants in the UN resolution.

Condi Rice is going back to try to negotiate an agreed resolution - and we will see now if what she comes up with is what Hizbollah has already agreed to - which is 1. The mutual release of Prisoners. 2. The return of the Lebanese land that Israel is still holding. 3. The deployment of the Lebanese army on the border. 4. The Israeli army leaves all Lebanese territory and ceases hostilities. 5. The provision by Israel of maps of the minefields they have laid inside Lebanon. (These are all from today's issue of the Lebanese Daily Star - see separate peace deal article.) If these are agreed, Hizbollah will also cease hostilities - and we will have peace.

What it did not mention was the deployment of an international force - but Hizbullah previously agreed to a UN force and its ministers in the government voted for this deal. Bush and Blair are going to try to get a UN resolution next week but this may be difficult to do with speed. We all remember just how hard it was to get such a resolution prior to the Iraq war.

Nor has Hezbollah agreed to be disarmed. This may be extremely difficult to achieve - for it would at the moment effectively leave Lebanon defenseless. The multinational force would need to be in place first - and would have to be a force that the Lebanese trust. The US has promised Lebanon about a million dollars worth mostly of spare parts so its army can take up duties on the frontier... but this contrasts to billions of dollars worth of arms supplied to Israel. All the bombs being dropped on Lebanon are stamped "Made in the US".

With many an awkward excuse today both men said they could not ask the combatants to stop warfare immediately as this would "not address the root cause of the problem" - a phrase Bush repeated many many times. It was his excuse .

They are thus totally ignoring the urgent appeal from the elected Lebanese government for such a immediate cease fire - and the similar appeals of many nations around the world. The enormous farcical irony is that Blair said they were not calling for Israel to stop bombing and shelling - as they wished to protect democracy in Lebanon from Hizbullah - from a coalition member of the Lebanese government - who are also calling for a cease fire!

The Bad News is thus also the distorted history that both men are promulgating to justify their actions. They are putting forward an entirely erroneous history of the Middle East, with all the same confidence-tricksterism as they used when they told us of the need to attack Iraq to protect us, to stop Saddam using his many nonexistent weapons of mass destruction

Bush said what we are doing is promoting democracy, as "Hamas is trying to destroy democracy!" I gasped when I heard this. Hamas is the democratically elected government of the Palestinians - and Bush has done everything to try to punish the Palestinians for choosing Hamas, for exercising their democratic rights in a manner that Bush and Blair does not like. No - it is Bush that is refusing to support Palestinian democracy.

He also said "Hizbollah is trying to destroy democracy." But Hizbollah is an elected party in a coalition with the Government of Lebanon, with ministers in this Government. Moreover this same Government has endorsed Hizbollah as part of the country's defenses. Hizbollah has done nothing to try to destroy democracy.

Then what about his boast about Iraq now having an elected government. It too has called for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon - and been severely critical of Israel. It is thus the voices of democracy that the US and UK governments are refusing to listen to.

As for the UN resolution that Hizbollah has not obeyed - requiring non governmental militias to be disbanded or incorporated into the nations forces, this should be enforced - and at the same time Israel should obey the other UN resolutions that they are disobeying - such as those that require Israel to respect Palestinian rights. But then this would be going to far. Israel should not be expected to obey - for it is on our side.