Cynical Nation

While the US media was focused on the Cindy Sheehan saga, John Bolton was getting down to business at the UN:

"Funding this kind of activity is inappropriate and unacceptable"

"We plan to raise the issue with UNDP and with others".

John Bolton, the controversial new American ambassador to the United Nations, has lodged a protest about its "inappropriate and unacceptable" funding of a Palestinian propaganda campaign to accompany the Gaza withdrawal.

Jewish groups reacted with fury to banners, mugs, bumper stickers and T-shirts bearing the slogan "Today Gaza, Tomorrow the West Bank and Jerusalem" which bore the UN Development Programme logo.

Israelis view the slogan, and particularly the reference to Jerusalem, as an aspiration to destroy the Jewish state.

The dispute became more acrimonious when the UNDP appeared to state that, while it was improper to use the logo, there was nothing wrong with its money being used to produce what has been denounced as incitement.

Kemal Dervis, a UNDP official, responded to a complaint from the American Jewish Congress by saying that the UNDP "cannot be involved in political messaging" and it was "not at all acceptable" that its logo was used.

Yet Timothy Rothermel, head of the organisation's Palestinian programme, was quoted on Fox News, the American cable channel, as saying that the slogan was "consistent with the relevant UN resolutions and Security Council resolutions about the status of Palestine".

UNDP officials argue that the Palestinian Authority has the freedom to use the UN money without each element being reviewed by the world body.