As long as there are people who are angry there will be terrorism. Military adventures, though at times justifiable, will never put an end to terrorism. More often than not, military intervention fuels it rather than pacifying it. The single most important step the United States could take is to help solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Independent reports

Israel was accused yesterday of committing a war crime by its destruction of more than 3,000 Palestinian homes in Israel and the occupied territories since the intifada began three and a half years ago.

The damning report from Amnesty International came as the Israeli army killed up to 19 Palestinians - children as well as militants - in the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip where General Moshe Ya'alon, the army chief of staff, warned at the weekend that hundreds more homes could be destroyed.

The Israelis claim this destruction was necessary for there military efforts to defend themselves from terrorisms. Bush said he found this troubling, but "but told the powerful pro-Israel lobby group Aipac that Israel 'has every right to defend itself from terror'."

Amnesty challenges the military justification for the destruction, much of which it says is "inextricably linked" to its policy of land appropriation, not least for "establishing Israeli settlements in violation of international law". The report also points out that Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that "extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully" is a "grave breach and hence a war crime".

The United States needs to react to this sort of thing with more force than simply stating that it is "troubling". We should cut off aid. As long as our treatment of the Israelis is uneven with our treatment of the Palestinians, we will be contributing to the conflict and thus generating more terrorism.