Took a pretty leisurely Sunday afternoon of napping and seeing a bit of news on cable TV and on the internet and some Wall Street Journal newspapers from last week.
If I had to synthesize what I gathered today, it looks like the Israelis are only doing limited ground operations and would prefer to keep it that way. Their preference appears to be a significant multi-national force (probably lead by NATO) taking up the buffer in South Lebanon rather than having to do it themselves. Israel's previous occupation of South Lebanon was costly in lives, treasure and political good will. However, if the diplomats can only come up with a UN-force (often times ineffectual) then Israel might have no choice but to go in with major ground operations.
Condi Rice is on the scene trying to broker some kind of deal with the "must-have" as a disarmed Hezbollah.
The key partners will be the Islamic nations that fear Iran. These countries will have to exert political pressure to make such a plan work.
The Iranians (with some help from Syria) are supporting Hezbollah. The Iranians are also fostering unrest in Iraq.
It would seem for a very long time the Islamic bloc was content to bash Israel and the United States.
However, now, division might be taking place as some fear their Iranian Islamic brothers.
Will this be a tipping point?
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