Until the West, led by the US, understands that international law covers all nations, not just the West and its favoured few, then terrorism of this sort can only get worse. As unforgivable as Tuesday's attack was, terrorism and fanaticism are not born out of an abstract concept of evil, but of genuine, or genuinely felt, grievances. The world will never be rid of extremists (history can tell you as much), but unless the West's foreign policy is (and is seen to be) based on more than its own prejudices and narrow agendas, then the extremists who carried out this outrage can only get stronger.
That the world's most powerful leaders seem more determined than ever to deal only with the symptom of such violence, can only be regarded as a signal that we have entered another perhaps more bloody century.

Perhaps the most chilling development since Tuesday's outrage is Ariel Sharon's claim that Arafat is "our Bin Laden", a tasteless piece of opportunism that so far has gone unremarked by Western leaders, who it seems see Sharon as an ally in their "crusade" against terrorism. Sharon's intent is clear - as soon as the "crusaders" hit Kabul, a parallel drive to crush the Palestinians once and for all will start, ignored or approved of by the world's media.

Shimon Peres (Israeli PM when over 100 Palestinian refugees were murdered at Qana) called the attack on New York an "attack on law" and an attempt to return society to the jumgle. In fact, Israel's refusal to abide by international law over decades, with US collusion, is well-known. If we are to prevent further tragedies we need to build a world where justice is available to all, and is more than a rhetorical tool for Western interests. This is the message the Campaign for Palestinian Rights will be putting across at a rally at Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, London, on October 4 at 7.00pm, to commemorate one year of the civil uprising in Plaestine.