An alternative view of American mid-east policy

I've had Antiwar.com in my blogroll almost since I bagan this blog, not because I agree with much of what is written there, but more as an exercise in trying to fulfil my aim to be scrupulously objective in presenting blogs having differing viewpoints. However I happened to read one of Justin Raimondo's articles there today ("Bush vs. Condi" - article dated 11th August) and it strikes a chord with me - since this whole Hezbollah/Israel/Lebanon conflict began a few weeks ago I've had a sense of deja-vu, that Israel was getting into the same kind of mire it last ventured into in 1982. It strikes me that those with the best long-term interests of Israel in mind would not be encouraging Israel to pursue its current path; at least until it seemed to be willing to sign-up to the Resolution agreed at the UN last night. Justin's article, as usual larded with supporting links, highlights some of the dissentions which appear to be opening up within the US Administration - Ms Rice may not have the complete confidence of the President that most of us had imagined. Let's hope she can survive the behind-the-scenes undermining of her position (possibly by Cheney and Rumsfeld, surprisingly led by Bush himself[?]). As I have written before, Israel is presented with a very unpalatable dilemma - almost whatever it does is likely to have negative consequences for it, but continuing down its 'attack, attack' path can only succeed, in my view, in digging itself into an even more untenable long-term position with its Arab neighbours, even those with whom it might have had hopes of establishing a modus vivendi, such as most Lebanese.