It sounds as though you're not a frequent reader. I suspect that you are unaware of the number and prominence of times Glenn has linked to studies and reports of civilian deaths in Iraq from U.S. actions, nor the meta-issues of how the U.S. media has systematically ignored and mis-reported them. Nor do you sound aware of the debates here about the U.S.' rush to back Georgia in a proxy war with Russia.

I don't know about you, but I'm certainly familiar with a loathsome, whiny charge that, omigosh, the standards for Israel are just sooooo unfair, that there are all sorts of governments slaughtering civilians but, gosh, you people only ever emphasize it when poor little Israel does it.

I could be wrong. Maybe your issue is that no one seems to much care about Iraqi deaths any more, and that's entirely correct. For my own part, I feel like I've been taught the clear lesson that no matter what the U.S. population does, no change will be permitted by the foreign policy establishment in Iraq policy. Protest what you want, elect whom you want, do whatever you wish to do, and the U.S.' Iraq policy simply will not be changed until it is.

And the same lesson applies to the U.S.' policies toward Israel. The U.S. foreign policy establishment is completely and unalterably (apparently) committed to the hawk-militarist consensus on Israeli power, and committed to funding it and arming it (two more ammunition ships sailing to Israel this very month) and diplomatically protecting it.

The "it" isn't Israel; no one in the establishment appears to me to genuinely care about Israel and Israelis; no, they can keep suffering this cycle of war and aggression and violence forever. The "it" to which our establishment is committed is the hawk-militarist rejection of any possible final state settlement of the issue.

The difference between Israel and its neighbors is the degree of U.S. influence. If tomorrow the Syrian regime decides to slaughter several thousand of its own civilians, there really is almost nothing that the U.S. could do to stop it, short of ensuring that millions would die by bombing the regime out of power.

Egypt is now such a heavy recipient of U.S. aid that it may be one of the few things keeping the tyrannical Mubarak regime afloat above its radical Islamist rivals; yet Egypt's government, as its own citizens mock it now openly for this, must consult with the U.S. government on when and how to allow Palestinians access to Egypt from Gaza.

Therefore I see access to the South of Gaza as largely the result of U.S.-Israeli control over Egyptian policy; and yet Egypt's rulers are now playing into the hands of the very Islamic radicals they fear will take power by being shunted into this position in the role of Gaza's Southern administrator.

Ask Egypt's government if it wants to be further linked to the Gaza strip, now a hotbed of Islamic radical activity (thanks in part to Israeli intelligence which helped launch Hamas in order to religiously undermine the secular Palestinian movement).

Now, either direction in which Egypt's corrupt regime turns threatens to weaken it against its own Islamic radicals: if it plays completely along with the U.S.-Israeli game in Gaza, the Egyptian populace regards its own government as a stooge for the forces they hate; if it takes more responsibility for Gaza, it (a) accomplishes what Israel wants, which is to push Gaza onto Egypt's shoulders while Israel keeps overall real control; and (b) links Islamic radical and paramilitarist movements in Gaza further up with Egypt's own anti-government Islamic fundamentalists (who probably won at least one prior election which was suppressed).

It will affect the region and the world greatly if Egypt, say, falls to or increases its degree of capitulation to its own Islamic fundamentalists or increases the degree of oppression to avoid that; and yet this potential disaster is being pushed precisely because of the continuation of the Gaza & occupation debacle by the U.S. and Israel, who are the only players who could push toward a final settlement of the illegal Israeli occupation.

Do you see why people outside the region pay attention? Do you see why people see this conflict as the root of so many ills? And do you think the Israeli hawks and militarists and their cheerleaders in the U.S. really, really care about the consequences for the Egyptian people and the Israeli population itself if the large and currently U.S.-funded state to their border either falls to a resurgent Islamic radical movement or degrades even further into an even less unstable militarist regime fighting even more Islamic radical paramilitarist uprisings?