Too High a Price

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The big beneficiaries of American policy have been the more radical wings of Hamas and Hezbollah and the Iranians, who more and more look like the champions of the Palestinian people. The big losers are the so-called moderate Arab regimes, which again look helpless in the face of what is seen as Israeli aggression, and the moderate Israelis, Palestinians, and Lebanese who hoped for some normalcy of life with the prospect of peace, especially when the Hamas leadership appeared to be moving toward recognition of Israel. The United States and the larger world, too, are losers, for no one benefits from this mindless escalation of violence, particularly at a time of growing sectarian violence in Iraq and rising oil prices.
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.Ah, but someone does benefit.
Someone benefits very much by keeping the region unstable. Someone gets to sell weapons and take oil on the cheap while someone colonizes these countries economies for "free trade" and sets up puppet regimes. Someone can even justify aggressive expansionist policies and ethnic cleansing and continued occupation of the west bank. Couldn't do that if the Muslim countries had effective democratic governments. No all this violence works out very well for the US and Israel.