Now, the Euro-elites and many in the U.S. media -- the very ones most critical of American military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq -- are urging that the United States intervene to "force" the Israelis to cease their efforts to eliminate Hamas and Hezbollah as threats. Critics of U.S. policy in Washington, New York and Paris are calling on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to commence a round of "shuttle diplomacy" to "stop the killing."

Absent from all this is any sense of reality. Here are a few perspectives on the current conflict you won't get from the so-called mainstream media:

-- Israel is fighting for survival against a regime that has sworn to wipe the Jewish state "off the map" -- the Islamic Republic of Iran. While racing to build nuclear weapons, the Iranians are supplying money, rockets, missiles, weapons, training and technology to their Hezbollah proxies.

-- Since the 1980s -- when I was dispatched to Beirut, Lebanon, and Tehran, Iran, to seek the release of American hostages held in Lebanon -- the U.S. government has known for certain that Hezbollah is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Iranian Intelligence Service -- VEVAK -- and that the organization has killed hundreds of Americans.

-- There is no way that any U.S. Secretary of State should ever sit down at a table to discuss anything with Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, or Mohammed Deif, the leader of Hamas, who was wounded in an air strike this week. Thus, "shuttle diplomacy" is worthless.

The best way we can help end the current Mid-East conflict isn't to "pressure Israel," but to help break Hezbollah -- an entity that cannot exist without direction and support from Tehran. The key to Hezbollah is Tehran -- and the key to Tehran is -- strangely enough -- Pyongyang.

Tehran was stunned by last week's UN Security Council Resolution condemning North Korea's missile launches. Rather than trying to compel Israel to cease its military action against Hezbollah, we should instead pressure our western "allies" into a similarly strong-worded, enforceable resolution aimed at Tehran. We should start by seizing all Iranian assets currently "frozen" in the United States, distributing the proceeds of their sale to the victims of Iranian terror -- and urging the Europeans to follow suit.