"Doubts intensified last night over the nature of an alleged aggressive confrontation by Iranian patrol boats and American warships in the Persian Gulf on Sunday, after Pentagon officials admitted that they could not confirm that a threat to blow up the US ships had been made directly by the Iranian crews involved in the incident... The Pentagon has said that it recorded the film and the sound separately, and then stitched them together..." -- Guardian, U.K.

"In recent years, American ships operating in the Middle East have had to contend with a mysterious but profane voice ... likely more than one person, who listens in on ship-to-ship radio traffic and then jumps on the net shouting insults and jabbering vile epithets." -- Navy Times

I'm sure it's merely a coincidence that this highly-publicized "aggressive confrontation" occured just as Mr. Bush was starting his P.R. tour of the region, including a pilgrimage to the Jewish shrines. This is not the only mysterious voice "jabbering vile epithets" that Americans have to contend with.

"In a letter handed to U.S. President George Bush Thursday, former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu admonished the US president to avoid any course of action that would harm the Jewish nation... 'Anyone who accepts the bible as the word of God must keep in mind that God had promised the land of Israel to the Jewish people alone. The Ishmaelites have no part of this divine guarantee.'" -- Ynet News, Israel

Mr. Bush, who masquerades as a Christian, would do well to keep in mind that it is not only the "Ishmaelites" -- one of the many racist epithets for non-Jews -- who are unwelcome in the Jewish State.