U.S. Raps Syria's Assad

The Bush administration on Wednesday rejected as "totally unacceptable" Syrian President Bashir Assad's condemnation of Israel as "a racist society and more racist than Nazism."

Assad's statement to an Arab League summit meeting in Amman, Jordan, is "totally unacceptable and inappropriate," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

The Syrian president and other Arab leaders rebuked Israel at the 22-nation summit and pledged their support to the Palestinian uprising against Israel.

Assad proposed reviving an economic boycott of Israel, but the league decided simply to consider an embargo.

Even so, the Bush administration expressed its opposition. "We are strongly against any renewal of the Arab boycott." Boucher said.

With Israel on the defensive, the Bush administration again showed its support for the Jewish state. At the United Nations, for instance, a U.S. veto killed a resolution backing a U.N. observer force that sponsors said was necessary to protect Palestinians.

"We have no apology to make for our relationship," Boucher said. "We have no regrets."

Asked if the United States, by supporting Israel, was hurting U.S. diplomacy, Boucher said: "We will continue to try to do the right thing."

Violence in the Mideast intensified on Wednesday as Israeli helicopters and tanks shelled Palestinian Authority buildings in Gaza and the West Bank city of Ramallah after a suicide bomber killed himself and two Israeli teen-agers, and two other bombs were found and defused in Israel.

The Israeli military said it was hitting specific targets in the Palestinian territories, aimed at the "elements responsible for terror."

President Bush spoke to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon about a spate of violence in the region. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said: "The United States strongly condemns the violence; there is no excuse and no justification for the bombings that recently took place in Israel."

Fleischer said "the president again reiterates his call for the violence to end and that way we can move forward to secure direct conversation between the parties in the Middle East so that they reach an agreement that the parties support." There was no immediate U.S. reaction to Israel's attack on Gaza and Ramallah.

On Tuesday, the Bush administration urged Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority to stop terrorists before they strike against Israel and arrest those responsible for deadly plots.

"We look to the Palestinian Authority to do all it can to fight terrorism," the State Department spokesman said. "It can do such things like pre-empting attacks, arresting people who are responsible and bringing them to justice."

The proposal "means finding out if something is being planned by someone and stopping them from carrying it out," Boucher said.

By Barry Schweid