President Bush has reached the limit of his abilities: 'The President has no real ideas of his own. Instincts are a poor substitute for strategic intelligence'

For the moment Colin Powell has the President's ear but it would be foolish to imagine this will last. He has persuaded Mr Bush that America needs to intervene in the Middle East. But if he goes a step further and suggests putting massive American pressure on the Israelis (along with similar arm-twisting of Arafat) to sit down at peace talks, the right-wingers will raise hell. They are already doing that, aided by the pro-Israeli lobby and by large numbers of Congressmen from both parties.