Fact 1: Hezbollah is a Lebanese, Islamist guerilla group and political party, a militant group with a stated objective of eliminating Israel. The civilian wing of Hezbollah has 23 seats (18%) of the Lebanese Parliament.
Fact 2: Hezbollah initiates attacks against civilans. The United States, Britain and Israel consider Hezbollah a terrorist organisation.
Fact 3: On July 12, Hezbollah soldiers crossed the border with Israel and captured 3 IDF soldiers and killed 8 more. Since then they have been firing rockets into Northern Israel.
Fact 4: Crossing the border with Israel is an act of war and Israel is within its rights to provide a response.
Fact 5: Under international law, Israel is permitted to provide a response that is in proportion to the threat. (Go back to Fact 1 - the threat is of 'total elimination').
Why is it then that we have to listen to the Lebanese on the nightly news crying about the destruction of their great and noble city of Beruit? (The Hezbollah is based in southern Beruit, in among civilan apartment blocks.) Perhaps the Lebanese should be directing their hatred toward their own Hezbollah for getting them in to this mess? If I let a killer hide out in my house and the police have to demolish my house to get the killer - bad luck for me!
Hezbollah knew Israel would respond in the way they have, that is what the Israeli's do. Whether Israel has over-reacted is a fair question but 2 things occur to me:
1. The threat Israel faces is 'total elimination', in the face of that threat, I believe any response can be justified, including 'total elimination' of the aggresor.
2. There wouldn't need to be ANY response if Hezbollah hadn't invaded Israel in the first place. You can't break in to your neighbour's house, kill their children and then believe that you have the right to dictate how your neighbour reacts. Once you cross the border (or break in to someone's house) you waive your right to be able to be an independant observer. You can either participate OR criticize but you can't do both."