RIYADH, 21 April — Saudi columnists yesterday lashed out at US President George W. Bush for describing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a “man of peace” while ignoring Israel’s massacre of Palestinians.

“I always saw the United States as the best available model of justice, freedom, fairness and compassion for the oppressed,” Abdullah Nasser Al-Fauzan wrote in Al-Watan.

But now “I feel that the US president is no longer concerned about justice, conscience, human rights, or even truth and honesty,” the writer said.

Fauzan said he was particularly shocked when Washington threatened to veto a UN Security Council resolution calling for an international inquiry into alleged Israeli massacres at the Jenin refugee camp on the West Bank, and after Bush described Sharon as a “man of peace.”

Following US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s arrival back in Washington from a turbulent tour of the Middle East, Bush said on Thursday: “I do believe Ariel Sharon is a man of peace. I’m confident he wants Israel to be able to exist at peace with its neighbors.”

Bush suggested he was satisfied with the pace of Israel’s pullout from Palestinian territories it reoccupied over the past three weeks, despite the hundreds of Palestinians that may have been killed in the operation and the massive damage to civilian infrastructure.

Sami Saeed Habeeb, writing in Al-Madinah, said the US administration had “lost its dignity and moral credibility” by backing Israeli massacres.

“Despite the moral bankruptcy of the United States, clearly manifested in support for Israel’s Nazi-style collective punishment of the Palestinians ... the US president dares ... to tell the Muslim world what’s right and what’s wrong, and who is martyr and who is murderer,” he said.

Wasmia Abdulmohsen Al-Mansour said the whole world had seen the massacres against the Palestinians, yet Bush was “not ashamed” to ask Palestinians to halt violence.

“Bush made his statements while the whole world was watching the slaughter and torture of the Palestinian people,” she wrote in Al-Yaum newspaper.

“Despite this Bush was not ashamed to ask the Palestinians to halt acts of violence,” she added.

Bush’s characterization of Sharon as a “man of peace” had already come under fire in Friday’s Arab press, which described it as an insult to the Arabs.

Saudi papers have recently been strongly critical of the United States, especially Washington’s failure to force Israeli troops out of the Palestinian territories they invaded on March 29.

Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, is scheduled to meet President Bush at his Texas ranch on Thursday.