Report by Khaled Mamdouh, IOL Staff

CAIRO, October 1 (IslamOnline) - The U.S. Congress bill demanding the American Embassy in Israel be moved to Occupied Jerusalem, and signed by U.S. President George W. Bush Monday, September 30, raised the anti-U.S. sentiments in the Arab and Islamic worlds to a dangerous level, with observers lashing out at what they termed the "Bush-Blair hypocritical games".

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) warned Tuesday, October 01, that the U.S. move would only heighten Muslim resentment. OIC Secretary General Abdul Wahed Belqeziz voiced "particular concern because of the political and legal considerations stemming from this legislation which harm Islamic interests."

"This decision is in total contradiction with (UN) Security Council resolutions," Belqeziz said in a statement in the name of the 57-member Islamic body based in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah.

"Such an attitude from the American administration at a time when Israel is waging an unprecedented campaign against the Palestinian people is liable to exacerbate resentment among Muslims ... and is not liable to facilitate the role of the United States as co-sponsor of the Middle East peace process," he said.

Meanwhile, Qatar, which holds the rotating chair of the OIC called the Congressional move "a flagrant violation of Security Council resolutions on Jerusalem and a provocation against the feelings of Islamic and Arab nations."

The Qatar News Agency quoted a Foreign Ministry official saying it also ran counter to U.S. policy "which considers that the final status of Jerusalem must be examined within the framework of peace negotiations."

For their part, the Palestinian officials reacted angerily to the U.S. legislation that encouraged recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, warning that it would complicate peace efforts and could cost lives.

Saeb Erekat, a member of the Palestinian Cabinet, said Bush's signing of the bill "undermines all efforts being exerted to revive the peace process and put it back on track."

He called it "a flagrant violation" of agreements signed by the United States and Israel to negotiate the permanent status of Jerusalem.

"Such resolutions could mean Palestinian and Israeli lives," Erakat said, adding that the Palestinians would raise the issue with the United Nations Security Council, the Arab League and the Islamic Conference Organization

Meanwhile, observers and political analysts in the region slammed both the U.S. administration's decision and the reaction of the Arabic and Islamic regimes alike. They lashed out at the "flgrant bias of the so-called sponsor of the peace process", and also dubbed British Premier Tony Blair as "hypocrite and fraud".

"When Bush signed that bill, the U.S. lost its legal position as a sponsor of the peace process. Moreover, it officially and legally killed the peace process itself, there is nothing left to negotiate over now. Bush's statements that the bill is not binding is a farce. Why did he sign it then? Jerusalem is an occupied land, where is the rule of international legitimacy and law then? And where is Bush's vision about the Palestinian state? Did he dream about a Palestinian state in Iraq, for example, once he got rid of the regime and the people there?" an Egyptian political activist told IslamOnline Tuesday, prefering not to be identified.

"For the farce to be complete, less than 24 hours after Bush signed the unforunate bill, his staunch supporter Blair declared that talks on Palestinian state must be relaunched by year-end. I have no comment here.

"The other sad matter here is the reaction of the Islamic and Arabic regimes. As usual, big words of rejection, resentment…etc, but not a single concrete action. Even the statement of the OIC referred to the U.S. as the co-sponsor of the peace process. If any Arab or Islamic leader still has some dignity, the only wise decision now is to disappear from our lives. If they do not have the guts to defend our rights against the barbaric force of the U.S., they can at least save their faces and quit," he said..

"It is high time we faced the bitter reality of that infamous process. We have been living an illusion since 1991 Madrid Conference. (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon himself declared the death of that process. What are we waiting for? Israel does not want peace, never did, and never will. So, we have to come to terms with that reality before it is too late," he added.

On Monday, September 30 Bush signed into law the 2003 Foreign Relations Authorization Act, but in an accompanying message made clear he would ignore provisions of the bill that would shift the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Such a move would recognize the disputed holy city as Israel's capital leaving aside the Palestinians who demand control of East Jerusalem which the Jewish state occupied in the 1967 war.

On Tuesday, Blair said that negotiations on the establishment of a Palestinian state, based on the boundaries of 1967, must be relaunched by the end of the year.

And United Nations resolutions on the Middle East "should apply as much as to Iraq," Blair said in a keynote speech to his Labor Party's annual conference in Blackpool, northwest England.

"I agree UN resolutions should apply here as much as to Iraq. But they don't just apply to Israel, they apply to all parties, and there's only one answer.

"By the end of the year, we must have revived final-status negotiations, and they must have explicitly as their aims: an Israeli state free from terror, recognized by the Arab world, and a viable Palestinian state based on the boundaries of 1967."

Blair told the Labor Party conference: "What is happening in the Middle East now is ugly and wrong ... the Palestinians living in increasingly abject conditions, humiliated and hopeless; Israeli civilians brutally murdered."

"For Britain to be help shape this new world, Britain needs to be part of it."