So many people are saying that America should beware of the reaction to Israel's offensive in Lebanon (and our support of it): we will become so unpopular in the Mideast. Unpopular with whom: al Qaeda, Hamas, the imams in Iran, Moqtada al Sadr, Shiite (and often Sunni) jihadists in general? There are neighborhoods in which it is a feather in one's cap to be unpopular.
We, like Israel, have been making nice to the Islamic world for 15 years anyway, understanding that land for peace is not necessarily something to make Palestinians dance in the streets, rescuing Bosnian and Kosovar Muslims in the Balkans, courting Arafat despite his fairly obvious insincerity, (OK, West Bank settlements weren't too nice, but even Sharon was willing to get rid of them) and in return we got what?--hated, attacked (9/11 got some street-dancing), called barbarians etc. The invasion/liberation/whatever you want to call it of Iraq wasn't very nice either, I suppose, but only if you think of Saddam Hussein as misunderstood rather than a megalomaniacal thug. I say: if nothing you do gets you any good will, then at a certain point you start to have the right to be hostile in return.