My take on the Current Arab-Israeli Conflict

I could probably write a book on whats going in my mind
about this situation, but I'll try to summarize.  My general stance
is that Israel as a sovereign state has the right to defend itself and
try to rescue its captured troops/civilians.  My issue is with what
I perceive as hypocrisy in terms of what Israel is "allowed" to do,
and what Lebanon and other parties are not.  To be clear by saying
this I don't condone what Hamas and Hezballah have been doing,
but I think that Isreal is, and continues to illegally occupy the Gaza
Strip (simply pulling out your trips does not count as no longer
occupying), the West Bank, and the Golan Heights.  Occupying forces
will always lead to sometime of homegrown resistance; the problem is
that the resistance in the occupied territories is not the nationalistic
movement it once was, but now a radical Islam based movement.
Any type of radical religious movement worries me and especially
one that has potential ties to terrorist groups that attack civilians all
over the world.  Israel for years has been kidnapping and assasinating
persons in territory that does not belong to it, and it seems that that
is what has happened to Israel this time.  What goes around comes
around.  That said, two wrongs do not make a right and I would like
to see the troops returned and Israel ultimately pull out of Lebanon
and all other occupied territories.  I think both sides are at fault and
the moral exceptionalism (borrowed term from the cunning realist)
that Israel enjoys, needs to end.

Israel's reaction to the soldiers capture I find extreme, particularly
attacking the civilian infrastructure in Beirut.  I have been to Beirut
and it is a fun and very western (compared to the rest of the Middle
East) city.  You can drink, party, gamble, etc..and it was just seeming
that it had achieved some type of Democratic rule after half a century
of civil war.  I thought that it could have become an example of a
prosperous and liberal Middle Eastern country, however, the ill will 
caused by this incursion may have just ruined that chance as it will
breed a new group of Islamic terrorists in the image of Hezbollah just
as the first Israeli incursion into the country 25 years ago created.
My main issue is that the punditry rants on Hezballah's connection to
Iran and Syria, I would have liked Israel to present evidence of this
and then invade those countries.  The problem is...those countries
would have actually put up a fight, and as we learned from our own
government, why invade the countries that are an actual danger and
would take some type of effort to invade when you can just create a lie
of a "proxy" with little or no evidence as a pretext for invading a country.
It seems that Israel learned well from its big brother America.