America's National Interest versus Israel's National Interest: They Are NOT the Same

The outline of an Israeli-American consensus has emerged in which Israel continues to bombard Lebanon for another week, with U.S. Secretary of State Condi Rice flapping her wings in catchup diplomacy after the greatest damage is done. In the meantime, our government is speeding up "precision-guided" bomb deliveries to Israel?!

This is another example of the protection of American national interests playing second fiddle to Israel's misguided perception of her national interests. The costs to the U.S. of the advance of the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) could be very high indeed.

Consider: the advance of Israel into Lebanon will further radicalize Shiite forces that, in turn, may result in the deaths of more GI's in Iraq; the strengthening of Iran's role in the region is aided by the Israeli advance and may lead to a wider war which the U.S. could not avoid; the destruction of the political and economic infrastructure of democratic Lebanon is proceeding, after a remarkable recovery; the general heightening of tensions in the Middle East is resulting in higher gas prices at home; and the dilly-dallying of the Bush Administration only serves to humiliatingly illustrate the weakness of President Bush in world affairs at a critical time.

This is a big price to pay for supine support of whatever Tel Aviv is doing.