White House enmeshed in its own rhetoric

The crowd jeered when the deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, spoke of a "Palestinian state".

"Booooooo. Go home," yelled Laurence Mammon, an antique dealer who was crammed with tens of thousands of people on the grass in front of the Capitol building.

When the staunchly pro-Israel Mr Wolfowitz pointed out that "innocent Palestinians are suffering and dying" as well as Israelis, Mr Mammon joined in with a chant that almost drowned out the secretary. "No Double Standard! No Double Standard!" It was the mantra for what was said to be the biggest rally in support of Israel in United States history.

The accusation that the US is applying its war on terrorism inconsistently is being levelled by America's Jewish leaders and, more ominously, by the Republican Party's conservative Christian base.

"And I quote," said one poster held aloft by a young woman, "either you are with us or you are with the TERRORISTS", the alternative President George Bush offered after the September 11 attacks.