photos: Medhat Abdel-Meguid

'You make a monster for your own use and then you discover that actually it is beyond your control. They [the West] found this with Zionism, which they encouraged and helped and made powerful to serve their interests in the Middle East and now they have discovered that it does not obey orders. They would like them [the Israelis] to behave more reasonably, they want the Israeli electorate to elect some one less provocative. They would like the Israeli army to [operate] according to western orders, but they've discovered that Sharon, Netanyahu and Zionism are beyond their day-to-day control'

'Anthony Eden was the unchallenged king of British politics before the Suez crisis in 1956. Now he is not even a footnote in history. I believe that the Iraq war could be Blair's Suez if it goes badly and it has a tremendous capacity to go badly'