In most of Washington, the Palestinian civil war in Gaza hasbeen understood as yet another setback for the Bush WhiteHouse and yet another sign of an ascendant Iran. As if Washington policymakers vying for a job in the nextadministration didn’t already know it, Gaza is a sharpreminder that the peace process is dead. At this stage at least, it is nothing more than a jobs program for deeplycynical American officials past and present who do not givea damn that Arab and Israeli lives are being thrown away, aswell as US money and prestige, all for the privilege of beating a dead horse. But all is not what it seems in the Middle East, where chaos in Gaza is perhaps less dramatic than it appears and the Lebanese Army’s battle in Tripoli is an unheralded achievement for Washington and its regional allies. The Americans are all but oblivious to the fact
