Sucks to be Israel, they're fairly consistantly in a crappy situation.

Terrorist groups are kidnapping your soldiers in the name of Palestine. Terrorist groups are kidnapping your soldiers and holding them in Lebanon. Neither Palestine nor Lebanon seems able to/willing to return the soldiers. Do you sit and wait? Do you shrug it off?

The best answer for the long run might be yes, but I don't want to be the one who's got the job of telling Isreal it has to turn the other cheek.

Say what you will about Isreal's actions being too harsh, at least they're the actions of a government entity that can be held accountable (either internally or externally). Hamas and Hezbollah both operate in the murky world of quasi government actors with no accountability. What do you do? They don't care if you attack Lebanon, hell, they LIKE it if you attack Lebanon. There's no way to punish them directly, I guess the only way to hurt them is to punish the governments that tolerate them. Maybe, eventually, they'll lose a home.

What do you do? If you're Israel, and you've got multiple kidnapped soldiers being held in foreign lands by organizations with at least tacit support by their local governments, what do you do? How many soldiers have to be kidnapped before it's a war?

here's a hypothetical parallel situation. Let's say the minuteman project became (more) radicalized, and rather than simply monitoring the border for mexicans, they started shooting them on sight. Pre-emptively. Before they even crossed the border. Or they took high ground positions and fired across the mexican border at would-be crossers without the consent of the u.s. government. or launched missiles at towns close to the border, maybe because they feel the best mexican is a dead mexican. There's not too much population right at the border (except for tijuana), though, so maybe the minutement take it upon themselves to occasionally cross into mexico and carry out ambushes, bombings, etc.

Now, how would you expect the US to act? Certainly for the killing-on-soil and shooting-across-the-border it's the US's responsibility to arrest and imprison these renegades. One would hope the Mexican authorities would catch the border-crossing militias, but if they continue to operate out of the US, I would expect the US authorities to deal with them, possibly allowing for extradition or whatnot. If, however, the US stood by, turned a blind eye, etc., and I was Mexico, you can be damn sure I'd be angry. If the authorities aren't doing anything to stop these fighters, they're implicitly condoning their actions. if there were members of congress who were sympathetic to the aims of these radical minutemen, i'd be even angrier. and if the operating central government was sympathetic to the goals of the minutemen, i'd try and attack the power source, i.e. washington.

hezbollah have taken it a step further. they've been de facto running southern lebanon. they're integrated into the government of lebanon at this point. there doesn't seem to be any anti-hezbollah response from the lebanese government. this has been going on for years. yeah, this was timed while israel was already distracted, but that's no reason not to move, especially if this is being coordinated by some larger pan-arab conspiracy. It's certainly not unheard of.

Don't forget Mexicali.

"..but that's no reason not to move."

OK, let's accept that now's the right time to move. Are they moving in the right way? In a morally justified way?

The question of whether it's morally justified depends on what they're hoping to accomplish. If the plan is to kill a bunch of Lebanese because "we're freaking pissed!" then probably not. If the plan is to change the way things are done in the region, then maybe.

At the moment, it seems kind of like the "freaking pissed" scenario (I don't see the end-game in bombing intersections and airports with no concurrent land-troop movements).

The end game is way out of the picture though at this point, isn't it?
What bugs me is: Jon May, in your analogy you've kinda inverted the power structure w/r/t militia/guerilla operations and benevolent central governments, which to me is no small point. I'm looking for Israel to somehow change the way they play this game- because was it really not possible to allow Hamas to try to function for just a little while and see what happens? There was no other step available that I can see towards starting any peaceful developments than taking a chance on that one, which wasn't gonna happen from day one. And notice where we are.

Though the situation in Soutern Lebanon is getting more desperate. I can, on the other hand understand what the Israel Government is doing at present is the only way to let Hezbollah know that, they will not get away with kidnapping soldiers to enhance their "cause" in any positive way. The Hezbollah knows the intensity with which Israel will retaliate, they have calculated this, and I wonder if the Lebanese people will ever understand what price the Hezbollah are making the citizens of Lebanon pay?

I am from India, and am not affected by the crisis first hand, but i truly can understand what the Isreal Government is doing is right. Wars are ugly and cruel, people die, homes are destroyed, families are broken up.

What i would like to know is that can Lebanon ever get itself out of the hold of Hezbollah and Live in peace with Israel. Although i understand their emotional bond with the Palestine problem, should,nt the citizens of Lebanon be more worried and protective of its own countries stability and prosperity?