The American and Israeli aversion to Security Council involvement has converged, the public rationale since 1991 being that with the parties now in direct negotiation, outside interference must be avoided.On the whole, this policy has carried the day. I confess that I have only the slimmest expectation that the United States, with its veto power and identification with Israel, will permit the Security Council to take positive action which could be helpful to the people of Lebanon; indeed, the reverse is now on the cards if Unifil is forced by Israeli pressure to withdraw from Lebanon. For years, UN Security Council discussion of the Arab-Israeli dispute has tended toward one of two results - either a resolution so innocuous as to be meaningless, or an American veto of anything critical of Israel. Whatever the outcome of the present row at the United Nations in New York about the Israeli bombing of Qana, the Middle East peace process is unlikely to be affected. Its future will depend on forces outside the UN: the result of forthcoming Israeli elections and progress or otherwise in Palestinian/Israeli and Syrian/Israeli negotiations.

Today's crisis is about the Lebanon, an intrinsically unaggressive country, which has suffered far heavier civilian casualties as a consequence of the Arab-Israeli dispute than any other state in the region. The cogs are already in motion and the fruit bowl has been raided once again The colour to run from in the summer of 1997? Grapefruit.. According to one therapist, orange is bad for the aura, giving off negativity and fear. And while grass-green and sage-green are life enhancing, lime-green is thoroughly unhealthy for those who wear it and those who have to look at it.The only way to buck the trend is to do yourself, and everyone else a favour, and don't buy it.