The central issue in all of this is land, and the Arab desire to get back their land occupied in the 1967 war.
Until Israel agrees to trade this occupied land for peace (which happens to be US policy!), peace will likely remain a distant dream for all on both sides who desperately hope for it.

Just don't do anything. Come home and stop taking sides. This has been a problem for centuries. You're not going to stop two sides that hate each from killing each other. Stop supplying weapons to Isreal and stop supplying money and aid to Beirut, Jerusalem, Amman, Cairo,Damascus until they are done fighting and willing to sit down and get to the hard work of peace.

Secretary Rice:

Just come home!

Realize that you represent an American President that has no credibility in the Arab and Muslim world. Your president, right or wrong is perceicved by the Arab world as being the architect of unwanted American "expansion" and influence in the region and a strong supporter of Israel. Accordingly, you are in no position to strike a bargain or broker any (cease-fire)deals!

Despite your many capable and impressive diplomatic skills your President has left you with no currency and no meaningful influence. Just come home. Just come home!

So - if SecState Rice stays the course - she'll never see the U.S. again. There will never be peace in the Middle East until either Israel is gone or the terror organizations are gone.

Secretary Rice:
My recommendations to you build off Mr. Kuttub's suggestion you send back for your sleeping bag and prepare to stay awhile as you shuttle back and forth between: Beirut, Jerusalem, Amman, Cairo, and, yes, Damascus.
There is no point in suggesting a comprehensive discussion on the topic of the current Israeli-Palestinian-Hezbullah strife without meeting with Syrian President Assad. Likewise, someone is going to have to sit down with Nasrallah, of Hizbullah, and any leader the Palestinians suggest.
The United States can drape it's flags all OVER the recent shipment of medical kits to Beirut. They can even begin sky-writing over Beirut if they want, but 23 tons of equipment will NOT, in the least, alter the perceptions that Muslims and Arabs have that the United States and Israel's foreign policy objectives are the same, and set by Israel, not Washington.
As tensions rise in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and the Occupied Territories, as well as Israel, it should be clear to any Arab or Muslim in any part of the world, that America and Israel are predominantly Christian and Jewish. That American presence in the Middle East, to include Afghanistan, the Emirates, Kuwait, etc ... outside of Iraq ... has threatened to turn the region into a seething cauldron of Shi'ite anger and frustration.
Refusing to demand an immediate cease fire conveys the reality as articulated by a former Bush, Sr., Clinton Middle East Envoy -- Dennis Ross -- when he stated on Charlie Rose Monday night: "Israel [knows] it only has a limited amount of time to achieve it's objectives. They know they don't have much time ..." or words to that effect.
Only a child would understand that the objective mentioned -- the destruction of dismemberment of Hizbullah in Lebanon -- means that Lebanese casualties will continue to mount; that Beirut and other cities in Lebanon with connections to Hizbullah will be bombed mercilessly, and that Arab and Muslim lives simply do not matter as much as Christian and Jewish and Israeli lives.
There is no dismantling of Hizbullah when it stands in direct support of a growing minority Shi'a population in Lebanon. The Shi'a of Lebanon know that without Hizbullah, they would have been left to languish in a nation which has traditionally been led by Christians, Sunnis, and secular Sunnis. Hizbullah has stood for the Shi'a minority in Lebanon, and they now have 14 members in the government.
In other words: forget it so far as Hizbullah doing this or that precondition before the U.S. sits down and tries to facilitate a cease fire and comprehensive discussion on the problems between Israel, the Palestinians, Lebanon, Syria and Hizbullah.
To refrain from a more activiist stances will mean the United States will suffer more not less consequences so far as Arab/Muslim hatred in the world.
Shi'as are located in large numbers in: Iran and Iraq, of course; but also, Yemen, parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and eastern Saudi Arabia. Is the United States prepared to ensnare itself even more with worldwide Shi'as?
Does the United States not see that the Israeli provocation to lure Iran into striking Israel, so that Israel and the United States can then bomb Tehran, a failing action?
Does the U.S. really want to face a possible Shi'a uprising against it's troops in Iraq, particularly, Baghdad, as British forces leave Iraq and Americans take over more of the southern part of Iraq, plus, Baghdad? Is the U.S. going to fight Moqtada al Sadr's militia in Baghdad?
Does the U.S. understand the worst case scenario for Iraq's movement into the world of democracies, will be destroyed if Iraqi Shi'as completely turn against it?
What about the Shi'a in Afghanistan? And what about the Shi'a and Sunni islamists inside the Pakistani government? Is it a surprise that Pakistan has embarked on the construction of a very large nuclear reactor, which could produce enough plutonium for 30 - 50 nuclear bombs a YEAR?
Is there any connection between that action, and the way the U.S. has totally supported the massive bombing of Lebanon?
Is it not possible that Pakistan, fed up with trying to kiss up to the United States in it's lagging hunt for Osama bin Laden, has simply had enough? Isn't it also possible that Pakistan knows, after watching America's unflagging support of Israel, that in any future conflicts between the U.S. and Muslims, particularly Sunnis, that the Muslims will continue to come out on the bottom?
Secretary Rice: go to the Middle East and stay. Your boss has ignored and, once again, SQUANDERED opportunity after opportunity to make solid advances in the Middle East, and with the 1.0 - 1.5 BILLION Muslims in the world, by pulling back some of it's support for Israel ... and moving towards a more "even-handed" approach to Israelis and Jews as well as Muslims and Palestinians and Lebanese Shi'a.
Time is short.
Israel is slaughtering innocent civilians; UN observers; others caught in the massive bombardment which is as destruction as "Shock and Awe" delivered against Saddam Hussein's MILITARY TARGETS. The big difference, of course, is that the targets in Lebanon, one way or another, ARE civilians or their property.
A single spark in a combustible environment now can set off a regional conflagration between Shi'a muslims and Americans and Israelis. Things are THAT tense.
Muslims and Arabs MUST gain in value, as human beings, if the United States' attempts to inject ... democracy into the region, are to succeed. Lebanon, so important a year ago, when the Bush Administration wanted Syria out ... is now no more important than a dog patch. Lebanese, Muslims, and Arabs can see the truth, and stamping American flags in red, white and blue, all over supplies shipped into Beirut -- won't matter at all.
The Lebanese people, and Arabs in the Streets of the Middle East can see HOW those supplies are arriving in Lebanon:
via helicopter. America's "friend," Israel, has rendered the world class Beirut airport unusable due to dropping airport denial munitions (made by the U.S.) on the runways.
Marine helicopters are ferrying the supplies in ... planes can't land, thanks to the Israelis, with American complicity, destroying a way in, or out, of Lebanon.
Shameful.

It is interesting that you mention the man on the street, the silent majority, chapeau, chapeau, but not Iran and its friend Syria.

The man on the street is indeed more important, a peace must have some gestalt, but wouldnt it make Israel more credible, the borders of 67 etc, if it would invite both countries as well?