Across Africa, the Middle East crisis is provoking passionate debate bordering sometimes on angry condemnation. Both Muslim and "anti-colonial" sentiment, already stirred by the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the war in Afghanistan, have been inflamed by what is perceived to be the heavy-handed treatment of the Palestinians by Israel and uncritical support from the world's superpower, the United States. Charles Cobb Jr asks whether Africa's relationship with Washington could eventually suffer?