Your statement that "
Well, to the extent that Israel is a tool of the United States...and before that, of Britain and France, there's some truth to the accusation" identifies the "power players" but mis-applies their roles and results.
It is fairly clear that Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon were actually created as weak, divided, multi-ethnic, buffer states on the Eastern Littoral of the Mediterranean, and this was done to "protect" the Suez Canal and create a British and French "Balance of Power" on the Eastern Littoral of the Mediterranean
This was the object of the French-British Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, and is thoroughly described in "A Century Of War : Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order" by F. William Engdahl.
I would go so far as to say that all of ME policy is driven by "Petroleum Politics" by a "Petroleum-Political Complex" where the Israeli people, the Palestinian people, the Lebanese people, and the Muslim proletariat are mere spectators. See, e.g.,"House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties" by Craig Unger, as well as Engdahl, above, and you might want to "Edgar" Shell Oil at
http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html and read about payoffs to Filipino and Indonesian terrorists and deliberate over stating of "proven reserves" ("stock fraud")
http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?company=shell&CIK=&filenum=&State=&SIC=&owner=include&action=getcompany I realize that for some it is much easier to put 100% of the blame on one side - be it the Israelis or the Palestinians (or in my biased case as a Prius driving, independent alternative renewable green energy engineer "Big Oil" at $2.61 a gallon) - and to ignore their own ("our own") oil consumption habits and the "protection" of the mineral "interests" of the former colonial interest. But remember - the former colonial powers have a history of "Balance of Power" to retain hegemony (Anglophones versus Francophones in Canada, Europeans versus African Slaves in the "American Colonies", siding with the Confederacy during the American Civil War, British versus Dutch in South Africa, Hindus versus Muslims versus Sikhs in Indian-Pakistan, Muslims versus Christians versus Jews in the Eastern Littoral of the Mediterranean)