Ms Rice, speaking en route to Israel, said there must be no place for “terrorist groups” like Hezbollah to launch attacks from Lebanese territory.

But, just six years on, Israelis stand almost unanimously behind the decision to wage a new war across the country’s northern border.

Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, James Baker, Madeleine Albright and others found themselves dragged into the business of trying to bring peace to the Middle East.