The US veto of the Security Council resolution to halt the Israeli over-the-top reaction to the two soldiers being taken was a "green light" for Israel to do whatever they pleased.

Olmert is the QB of the Israeli team but the plays are coming in from the sidelines. Interesting to me that this is now boiling over as the elections loom nearer. And through it all, the MSM is shouting from the rooftops that Israel has a right to defend herself by ANY means and that the real boogey-man in this is Iran.

Newt Gingrich is even saying on Meet the Press that this is the start of WWIII.

Note that it's not rare for soldiers to protest their orders.  More than a few refuse to serve in the Occupied Territories, drop bombs, etc.  Israelis are usually far more critical of their governments than Americans are.  A major newspaper, Yediyoth Aharonoth recently found 57% of the people it polled were against the latest nonsense.  Most realize that the "Two State Solution" is the only thing that could work.

In short, the US executive branch and its counterpart in Israel have in fact merged to form a new, radical, and right-wing government aparatus; and in the process have jettisoned their democratic linkages to their respective nations (henceforth to be referred to as "brainless tax-farms").  Their new constituency is composed of corporations - far less noisy and troublesome that the traditional electorate, as long as the wealth of the latter continues to flow into their pockets.  

This new inter-state entity is, as Rumsfeld would say "leaner, meaner, more manueverable" than either previous nation-state could have hoped to be.  They are now a geopolitical "great white/olive-complected shark" that kills and keeps moving to stay alive.

Is the shark "smart" to drive into a school of bonita, gobbling as many as it can?  That's a complex question - but as far as I know, this behavior hasn't hurt a shark yet.