Was just talking to a plugged-in U.S. observer who is pretty depressed about where this thing could be headed diplomatically. He worries that the UN meeting next week could be something of a fiasco. If Condi comes to New York for a ministerial meeting of the Security Council, she could be hammered even harder than she was in Rome and the storyline about the isolation of the U.S. could get even more traction. He sees a basic disconnect between the U.S. diplomatic holding pattern (which won’t last forever and may soon give way) and the Israeli military campaign (which seems to lack a sense of every-minute-counts urgency). This raises the possibility of the diplomatic window closing before Israel really gets the job done–because Israel thinks it has more time than it really does. The Arabs, Russians, and Chinese will be hammering away at us next week, and while it probably won’t get to the point where there’s a resolution we have to veto, it might get very hard to keep a call for an immediate cease-fire out of it. He says everything that is coming of Lebanon suggests that Hezbollah is gaining political support rather than losing it, and if this thing ends without Israel having landed a very grave military blow against Hezbollah, the terror group might gain from it after all. It’s doubtful that Condi is going to get much for the Lebanese during her trip over the week, since they are in no position to do anything but call for an immediate ceasefire. The Brits still seem to be holding firm, but there’s some wobble in Foreign Secretary Beckett and her top staff. For what it’s worth…