[stevenbedrick]

Without commenting on your theory as to why Israel's favored by the USA, I'd like to point out a bigger reason that Israeli leaders won't be sleeping well: whoever ends up in charge of Egypt is quite likely to be a lot more hostile toward Israel than Mubarak's government has been.

Israel has been able to count on relatively peaceful relations with Egypt for the last few decades, meaning that since the treaty with Jordan they've only had to worry about one hostile immediate neighbor. Suddenly having to worry about Egypt as well as Lebanon would represent a big change.