Did the Middle East Just Dodge a War?

Al-Sharq al-Aswat reports that Israel nearly went to war with Lebanon last week, and that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talked Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak out of it at the last minute. I don’t know if that’s true. My Israeli sources say they don’t know. Either way, it’s bound to get the authorites in Beirut—such as they are—to sit up and take notice.