They have learned from their greatest supporters

The 48-hour suspension of well, I guess, airplane attacks makes little military sense (unless, of course you just decided to fold until there's a cease-fire). As Billmon states:

All in all, looking at how the war has progressed so far, I would say the Olmert government has come down with a stunning case of the reverse Midas touch: everything it touches turns to shit.

Well, I'd like to point out that the Israeli's wouldn't be doing this for nearly three weeks without the diplomatic cover, and outright blessing of George W. Bush. And we already know that every policy initiative - most particularly wars - undertaken by Chimpy turns to merde.

So if Olmert is operating under the blessing of C-plus Augustus (and I'm definitely now grading on a curve) there is at least a debate about the cause.

Which makes this especially frightening:

[Israeli]Defense officials told the Post last week that they were receiving indications from the United States that the US would be interested in seeing Israel attack Syria.

Can't we just finish losing our own wars, rather than going all in on the whole middle east?

I definitely want these matters resolved as quickly and peacefully as possible because this is surely the time to start playing high-stakes poker with Bush & Cheney. These two would go all in an a mixed suit of 3,5,8,10, and a two-eyed Jack and the time to take 'em is before they spend all their money lawyerin' up.