In the days after Hezbollah crossed from Lebanon into Israel,on July 12th, to kidnap two soldiers, or triggering an Israeli air attack on Lebanon and a full-scale war,the Bush Administration seemed strangely passive. “It’s a moment of clarification,” President George W. Bush said at the G-8 summit, and in St. Petersburg,on July 16th. “It’s now become clear why we don’t absorb peace in the Middle East.” He described the relationship between Hezbollah and its supporters in Iran and Syria as one of the root causes of instability,” and subsequently said that it was up to those countries to end the crisis. Two days later, and despite calls from several governments for the United States to take the lead in negotiations to end the fighting,Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that a ceasefire should be build off until “the conditions are conducive.”
Source: newyorker.com