Distinction with a difference
Reason republished a piece Jonathan Rauch wrote for the National Journal about how "Like it or not, Israel's war with Hamas is America's, too."

I'm not an expert on the Middle East, but my impression is it isn't our war even if we give Israel a ton in foreign aid and Bush gives Sharon a free hand.

Says Rauch, "... America's terror war and Israel's are not separable, however much we might wish they were."

And later he contradicts himself, "Although Hamas has concentrated on Israeli interests while Al Qaeda concentrated on American ones, even that gap is narrowing—inevitably, now that America is making a priority of bringing secular democracy to the Middle East." Secular democracy? Afghanistan, a guide here, has Islam written into its new constitution and Iraq's will certainly have references to Islam as well, given Ayattolah Ali Sistani's pull and the majority Shia population.

Ask yourself which American interests Al Qaeda is concentrating on and why. Compare the experience of the Palestinians, who are fighting the Israelis over contested land, as described by a Middle East expert:

During the first intifada, in the late 1980s, the Palestinians denied themselves the recourse to arms, mounted a civil resistance, produced voices like Hanan Ashrawi and greatly stirred world opinion. For this they were offered some noncontiguous enclaves within an Israeli-controlled and Israeli-settled condominium. Better than nothing, you might say. But it's the very deal the Israeli settlers reject in their own case, and they do not even live in Israel "proper." (They just have the support of the armed forces of Israel "proper.") So now things are not so nice and many Palestinians have turned violent and even--whatever next?--religious and fanatical. Naughty, naughty. No self-determination for you. And this from those who achieved statehood not by making nice but as a consequence of some very ruthless behavior indeed.