I’d like to offer one objection to the press and punitocracy’s relentless use of such phrases as “Bush gave Israel a green light…” or “Bush has refrained from calling for a ceasefire…” etc etc. No one disputes that America has real influence over Israel. But it doesn’t have control over it. So many of these formulations imply that all Bush needs to do is tell Israel to stop (or to “end the madness”) and Israel automatically will stop on a dime. They are often incorporated in quickie analysis about how the US is in a proxy war with Iran and Syria and that Israel is to America as Hezbollah is to Iran and/or Syria. This is dangerous and sloppy. There is no moral equivalence, and there is no political equivalence.