Fallout Threatens Mideast Political Map

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Israel's assault on Lebanon threatens to weaken Arab moderates
throughout the region, bolstering the image of Islamic militants at a time when anger
among the Arab public is running high over the war on terror and America's role in Iraq.

A drawn-out conflict could redefine politics throughout the Mideast.

Israel launched the punishing air campaign after Hezbollah guerrillas seized two Israeli soldiers and brought them back to Lebanon.

But the military campaign is also the result of the deadlock in Arab-Israeli peacemaking after decades of false starts, Iran's growing influence and the fallout from the rise of Iraq's Shiite majority after generations of Sunni rule in that oil-rich nation.