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I am sure that that "stability" is precisely the reason for the Administration's actions (diplomacy). And I'm also sure it is because America is very vulnerable to economic and military shocks that it is not yet prepared to deal with effectively. And if the middle east blew up and the U.S. military was in no position to respond effectively (short of using nuclear weapons) that would undoubtedly not help our standing in the world at all.

All that said, if the price of such "stability" is alowing the Palestinians the freedom of action and manuever while restraining the Israeli's to merely defensive tactics then the question must be raised: How many dead Isrealis is the price for "stability"? One thousand? Ten thousand? One hundred thousand.

At some point, our policy (our diplomacy) simply trades Israeli lives for time (to adequately rearm and deploy), for stability, for our economy, for world opinion. I, for one, would at least like to get a sense of how many of their lives we're willing to trade for these things. Because that is the end result of our current tack in diplomacy.

Just tell me one thing...........What have we really done to restrain the Israeli's? I know that the Clinton admin. threatened Israel with financial sanctions, but what have we done under Bush? what?.......................(besides a few words intended for Arab consumption for use by Arab allies to attempt to calm ruffled feathers.)

It is not anywhere near what they wanted or expected. We are actually thumbing our nose at them without really saying it.This is a total policy reversal from the clintonian diplomatic efforts.