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It's virtually impossible for Israel to negotiate with an enemy who's sole intention is to destroy Israel, Jews, and their way of life. Years of "negotiations" and appeasement by the Israel have only served to strengthen and embolden their enemies who see weakness in any concessions by the Israelis. The more Israel backs down, the more their enemies exploit this perceived "weakness."
Blocking enemy supply lines by cutting off the harbor, airport, and roadways is the best way for Israel to protect itself.
While Hezbollah continues to indiscriminately murder innocents by lobbing rockets helter-skelter into civilian neighborhoods, the Israelis have undertaken a very humane, precise, and surgical effort to choke off their enemy without causing unnecessary casualties.
Israel is in a precarious position, and the free world should do everything it can to support it in it's fight to remain free from terrorist attacks.
By all means, the world should seek to stop Syria, Iran, and other factions from attacking Israel.
But Israel should not give in to terrorist demands which only serve to give the terrorists time to regroup, rearm, and plan further attacks.
Just my $.02.

Doug,

Do you think it is a coincidence that the Iran-controlled Hezbollah launched its attack on Israel at the very time that pressure is being brought to bear on Iran regarding their nuclear amibitons? Is it possible that this is an intentional aggression to divert attention? All this seems to be working as the world is condemning Israel for "over-reacting" as you did. I see no one condemning Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria and Iran, but that is no suprise. I suppose the answer is that the U.N. will send some "blue helmets" in there to make the peace. Ha! You can always count on the U.N. to disappear when the shooting starts and become available when there is money to be stolen. Maybe we have some sanctions coming with a "Food for Oil" program in the making?

This has the makings of a war for the U.S. alright, but it's only a matter of time before we have to confront Iran and Syria anyway. It's inevitable.

jaycee,

You can take the "virtually" out of your statement above. It is totally impossible for Israel to negotiate with these characters. You can't have a one-way discussion or negotiation. All you can have is a one-way capitulation.

I don't think Iran ordered the Hezbollah attack to divert attention from its own efforts but more likely to create a two-front war for Israel -- in Gaza and in Lebanon. This could be a major miscalculation for Iran because it could provide Israel an opportunity to strike Iran's nuclear facilities.

I agree with the point about negotiation with Hezbollah. That's why a say the U.S. should work with Israel and others should encourage Iran and Syria to pull back Hezbollah.

Doug,

Don't hold your breath for China, Russia, France or Germany to rush to Iran to get them to yank Hezbollah's chain. It ain't gonna happen. And, it's not in our country's interest to pressure Israel to stop their self defense. If a terrorist group in Canada was lobbing rockets into Buffalo neighborhoods, do you think that we would sit passively and play nice? I don't think so, and neither should Israel. Israel's very existence is at risk every day.

I support Israel's right to self-defense and its actions against Hezbollah. It's taking its offensive beyond that, however -- dangerously.

If terrorists in Fort Erie, Ontario, were bombing Buffalo, we should hit them there, not in Ottawa.

Doug,

The problem with that would be if the terrorists' leaders also occupied South Ottawa. Hezbollah has major influence in Lebanon's parliament, so strikes against Hezbollah in the north is justifiable. Lebanon needs to relieve itself of Hezbollah's presence, if they want to be cosnidered neutral.

How do you think that the 11,000 rockets that Hezbollah says it has got into Lebanon? Maybe taking out the airport runways makes some sense? Israel is taking out strategic targets, while Hezbollah is targeting civilians (just like all Islamic Jihadists).

I'm not asserting there's a moral equivalency here, just that Israel is reaching too far by, in effect, making war against the country of Lebanon. The Beirut government has been struggling to rid itself of Syrian domination and also contending with a powerful terrorist/militia/political organization within its borders. Being pummeled by the Israelis isn't going to help those Lebanese who want to strenthen their control of their own country. Israel should concentrate on wiping out Hezbollah strongholds.

Doug, I disagree as to tactics. I trust Israel to know a thing or two about how to wage a war, LOL.
One of the surest ways to defeat an enemy is to cut off his lines of supply for weapons, food, money, etc. Starve them from their resources rather than try to scorch their earth, so to speak. We're doing the same thing with Al Qaeda and other terr organizations.
Every country, ours included, has a "war plan" in the file cabinet for fighting every other country. This includes how and where to fight, what weapons, vehicles, planes to use, what routes to take, and how to cut off their supply lines. Israel has been in constant battle with their enemies for decades, I'd guess they have pretty thorough plans in place.

It was pretty clear they had plans in place.

So, in our war against al-Qaida, should we bomb Islamabad, or can we find more productive ways to work with Pakistan against the terrorists inside its borders?

Doug,

This is a nice academic conversation for us to have safe here in Greensboro, but if you are watching television, the jihadists are taking the level up by the minute. The Israelis don't have the luxury of negotiation or playing nice.

The Hezbollah Chief has declared all-out war with Israel. They have landed a rocket on an Israeli vessel. Egyptian fighters are streaming through a hole in the Gaza wall and coming to kill Israelis. When people have said that they want to kill you, and they come to do it, you better me ready to do what you have to do.

All in all, I'd say that the Islamists had an offensive war plan as well as the Israelis defensive war plan, and both are executing their plans. I think that Israel is going to do whatever they have to do to survive. It's been clear for decades that this is a war of extinction of Israel. It's the same thing that we would expect our government to do in this situation. The Israelis have no margin to be "nice guys". This is starting to look like 1967 all over again. I'd say this whole incident was planned, and the governments of Iran and Syria are neck deep in it. The little dictator in Tehran has been leading up to this for months withhis anti-Israel rhetoric. Now, he's got it. He just better hope that it doesn't come his way. Israel may decide now is the time to take out Iran's nuclear sites.

You're both making very valid points. I'm just afraid of an escalating conflict that's going to race out of control and draw us in.

I'm scared as hell at the way this thing has escalated so quickly. I keep thinking about how fast I've read that world war 1 started, everyone had already picked sides. Everyone is picking sides right now.

I fall on the side too of Israel having every right to defend itself. In such a short time it appeared this pattern of kidnapping soldiers was developing. The reply was there will be zero tolerance for this.

If anyone's watching the coverage, there's a good article I'm reading, good one on msn called, Beirut was Back. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13860635/) It talks about how hard the country worked to reconstruct itself and its image and was turning a corner, property values were up and the beaches were full (and this was expected to be a very good tourist season). It also suggests that may turn the tide against Hezzbollah, since at a time of progress, the city's now in tatters.

The parallels I draw in my own mind to World War I, that type of situation, may be one of the reaons doug talking about de-escalation and rational thinking (which I'm also for)

The World War I analogy is sobering. It's absolutely sickening how nation after nation stumbled into that horrible, senseless slaughter.

A less agressive policy by Israel would change nothing except to tie one of Israel's hands behind it's back.

The Jihadistanis would considered it a sign of weakness, and press their agression even further, thus delighting their puppetmasters.

I'd like to add the small point that everyone's saying negotiations don't work, but they haven't been tried for over five years now. Israel acts unilaterally. Negotiations may not helping, but each violent response just brings another. Maybe negotiating is futile, but I can't imagine anything that would hurt matters as much as Israel's retaliations. I think that we should respect Israel enough to hold them to higher standards than we do terrorist organizations. Someone needs to be an adult over there. Bubba is probably right, a less aggressive response would do nothing, but doing nothing's better than making things worse.

Andrew,

How do you negotiate with or find an appropriate level of response to deal with a group whose whole purpose is to destroy you, because that is what Hezbollah is and why it was formed? No amount of negotiation will ever solve this problem. The only solution to the problem as far as the islamists are concerned is the destruction of Israel. It's the same as us trying to negotiate with OBL.

This situation has been a catastrophe for 50 years. Sharon thought that pulling out of Gaza and giving the Palestinians a homeland would be a start to solving this problem, and the first thing that started happening was rocketsa getting fired into Israel and its people getting killed and kidnapped. So, how do you solve this probme through negotiation?

Israel has spent the last 40 years since the 6-Day War where they defeated in 6 days the simultaneous assault of all their Arab neighbors in 6 days. Israel captured the Sinai, Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem. These were considered “occupied territories” by the world for 40 while Israel held them as a buffer while they bought time to grow and stabilize their nation. The Arab world assured the rest of us that if only Israel would return the land to the Palestinians then peace would rein. For 40 years the Israelis negotiated , dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s as the world would require of ONLY them. Then last September Gaza was giver to the Palestinians as the Israelis pulled out entirely even destroying their homes and buildings as the Palestinians required. What did the Palestinians do? Did they build their country infrastructure , schools, hospitals? No! They instead made of Gaza an armed camp from which to attack Israel and elected freely a Hamas government. And yet we still have the world calling for these patience people to restrain their defense of their country. Dear Lord. How can we so much of these people? I hope Israel cleans out the whole lot of them in this one sweep. They certainly have the power.

Great blog Brenda, lets hope Irsael, does not fight a PC war.
AC, what the heck is Israel to do?

Doug, to get back to your original thought...
Now that it's pretty much been made public, let me explain the reasoning for Israel "cratering" the Beirut airport.
Iran sends missile to Syria. Syria flies the missiles to Beirut Airport. The missles are then distributed to Hezbollah who promptly rain them indiscriminately on innocent men, women, and children in northern Israel.
The quickest and most efficient way for Israel to stop the missiles is to break the link in the supply chain at Beirut Airport.
Hope this helps.

Let's see, Israel cedes/negotiates all control of Gaza to the Palestinians to form a responsible sovereign entity, to live in peace with Israel, elect a government and provide for their people, and what do the Palestinians do. First, the Palestinians elect a terrorist organization, whose sole purpose is the eradication of the Jewish state, to govern their affairs who proceeds to launch missles/mortars and invade Israel killing several soldiers and kidnapping another.

Quite simply, Israel is under assault and will be so until organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah are defeated. Some in the Arab world will never sleep until the Jew is driven from Palestine.

Lebanon's airport as well as it's major transportation facilities (roads, etc.) have been major conduits for Hezbollah militarization. The people of Lebanon may not have hostile intents against Israel but their inability or unwillingness to stop the Hezbollah military threat against Israel provides ample authority for Israel to react in a manner they feel is appropriate for their national security.

The difference between WWI & this issue, is that unlike the events leading up to WWI, discussion & negotiations have been taking place on and off for many decades between the Palestinians & Israelis with several major conflicts thrown in during the impasse. Israel, unlike other major powers would have reacted if assaulted, has exhibited major restraint over the years when assaulted.

Come on now, everyone's acting like a stable government should naturally appear when Israel withdraws. Israel pulled out quickly without working with Abbas or anyone. If that's supposed to work, why don't we pull out of Iraq right now and watch stability magically form? Negotiations may not work, but it's been awhile since anyone has tried, and it doesn't have the guarantee of making things worse like the violence does. These idiots on both sides think that if they hit the other hard enough, they'll just stop. What dream world are people living in when they think that being tough and willing to kill makes you safe? To me it's even more a practical issue than a moral one. It's just way too easy for things to get out of control with this escalation, and full-scale war will not give Israel security or make their people safer. Why do the "realists" insist on a solution that has no prospects of improving things and in all likelihood will make them much worse?