This article was originally published by the Houston Chronicle and is republished with the permission of the author.

Between 10,000 and 30,000 tons of fuel oil have spuilt along Lebanon's northern shoreline following two Israeli air strikes on a power plant. (Raoul Kramer, Maan Images)

THE devastation that is being wrought in Lebanon--the destruction of civilian infrastructure, the death of hundreds of innocent civilians, the displacement of well over half a million inhabitants, the deliberate collective punishment of an entire population in an attempt to defeat Hezbollah--is not simply Israel's doing. It is also America's.

This is a choice that American policy-makers have made in their determination to stall a diplomatic solution to on order to give Israel more time to "degrade" Hezbollah, with all the attendant suffering of civilians on all sides that this phrase conceals. It is also a choice that the U.S. Congress has overwhelmingly made. In all, 410 congressmen House members voted to support Israel in its war of "self-defense." On July 20, the day the vote was taken in the House of Representatives, 20 July, the shocking scale and magnitude of Israel's bombing of Lebanon was already well-known.

Regardless of whether one thinks Israel has a "right" to self-defense (that other nations and peoples in the region presumably don't have), or whether one loathes Hezbollah or fundamentally disagrees with its tactics and orientation, as many Lebanese do, there is a tremendous irony in the phrase bandied about by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, President Bush and a variety of inconsequential European leaders when they speak about getting to the "root cause" of this conflict. They mean, of course, the link between Iran and Hezbollah via Syria and the Iraqi insurgency that stymies U.S. efforts to win the "war on terror," which in reality means to pacify the Mideast under U.S. hegemony in which Israel alone will possess nuclear weapons and be allowed to dominate the region made up of subservient Arab regimes, a humbled Iran and a defeated Arab population.

Arabs of different stripes have also been calling for attention to the "root cause" of conflict in the region for years, even decades. But they have always understood the phrase to mean finally solving the question of Palestine in a just and equitable manner--a manner that can guarantee Arab Palestinians their right to meaningful self-determination and can finally resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict on the basis of mutual accommodation and not simply Israeli domination.

And yet for years the United States has been supporting Israel ever more closely, even as Israel deepens its colonization of Palestinian territories and renders a viable Palestinian state impossible. Practically every poll and study of Arab and Muslim attitudes toward the United States conducted over the past five years affirms that it is the overwhelming U.S. support for Israel that is the basic historic and ongoing cause of anti-American sentiment in the region.

The official U.S. reaction to these incontestable findings is precisely the same as has been its reaction to the results of democratic elections in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon that have validated Islamist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah: a refusal to acknowledge reality as it is; a contempt for Arabs; and a ruthless resort to power to create a new reality.

Related stories FAQs on Hizbullah and Lebanon US tax dollars fuel Israeli intransigence US military assistance and arms transfers to Israel: US aid, companies fuel Israeli military Aggression under false pretenses US should not abet violence in Lebanon

For all the weapons that Hezbollah gets from Iran, Israel receives far more military and financial support and receives far more diplomatic cover from the United States. If Iran is implicated in Hezbollah's actions, then by definition the United States is implicated in Israel's. The United States is rushing jet fuel and munitions to Israel to help it in its effective destruction of Lebanon, embarrassing the country's impotent pro-American government that was hailed by Washington just months ago as the vanguard of the "Cedar Revolution."

Israel's massive assault on Lebanon and the open U.S. support for the continuation of this assault have also taken aback key American allies in the region such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which initially criticized Hezbollah. Since the death and destruction meted out by Israel to its Arab neighbors is far greater than anything Hezbollah has done to Israel or America, the implications of this on Arab public opinion are inescapable. Hezbollah understands this.

American taxpayers who subsidize Israel's aggression may well ultimately pay for its consequences. The billions of dollars of military aid to Israel that might otherwise be spent on American citizens and the unconditional U.S. support for Israel translate into Israeli impunity against Arabs. This does not further Israel's or America's security, neither of which can or should be separated from Arab security. Rather, it fuels Arab anger at, and causes further disillusionment with, America.

Before the next member of Congress stands up for Israel, let him or her first stand up for the United States.

Makdisi is an associate professor of History and the first holder of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair of Arab Studies at Rice University.