Israel has to maintain control of as much territory as possible not just for her own security, but to protect America's flank. No way Rumsfeld can be comfortable maintaining a joint US/Israeli war room in Tel Aviv with a nascent iraqi supporting state 9 miles away.Good point. I've been thinking along these lines for awhile. The whole concept of "peace in the Middle East" is a flawed one as long as 95% of the Arab Moslems hate the USA. It's actually better for the USA for there to be an ongoing war, than a false peace, with its false sense of security leading to "suprises" like 9/11. The ongoing conflict keeps the USA on guard, which is where we must be until that distant future day when sanity begins to slowly creep over the Arab world, as it must.