IRAQ: Whatever proves to be his fate, Saddam Hussein has assured himself further veneration among some Palestinians, and greater ignominy among Israelis, with the latest distribution by his representatives in Gaza of financial "blessings" to families of Palestinian intifada victims, including suicide bombers.
At a ceremony in Gaza on Wednesday, in a hall festooned with a banner welcoming "the families of the martyrs for the distribution of blessings of Saddam Hussein", members of 26 families were called forward one at a time to receive $10,000 cheques - the funds channelled from Baghdad to the Iraqi dictator's local Arab Liberation Front (ALF).
Mr Ibrahim Zanen, the ALF's spokesman, said President Saddam had distributed more than $35 million over the past 2½ years to families of Palestinian intifada dead - relatives of those killed by Israeli forces and in the course of attacks carried out by Palestinian extremists, as well as the families of attackers and bombers themselves.
Some bombers' families have reportedly been awarded $25,000 payments, to encourage such attacks. One of this week's recipients was the family of Karam Maghani, who was killed by Israeli troops when he and a fellow Hamas gunman threw hand-grenades in an attack on a bus in the small Jewish settlement of Netzarim, in the north of the Gaza Strip, two months ago.
"Saddam is the only one that has stood with us," said his father, Tahseen.
In the Gulf conflict of 1991, Palestinians stood on rooftops in the West Bank and urged Iraq to fire Scuds at Tel Aviv - which it did. Mr Yasser Arafat, at the time, aligned himself with Baghdad, and in so doing alienated most of his political, and financial, backers in the Arab world. Support for Saddam remains high in many Palestinian areas, but Mr Arafat has been more circumspect as a new round of conflict with Iraq has loomed.