"Terrorists"

Do they have any legitimacy left? Israel began this operation with a rare moment of support from the broader Arab community. After Hezballah captured an Israeli solider the majority of the western friendly Arab nations acknowledged that the group had provoked conflict. Israel could have taken measured and reasonable steps to protect its citizens, instead it decided to terrorize Lebanese civilians by destroying infrastructure, killing escaping innocents, and destroying any chance for the only Westernizing state in the Middle East to create any lasting stability. In the end I believe that Israel will only have managed to create a new generation of resistance to its regional hegemony and greater disullisonment with the prospect of two states existing peacefully side by side. More worrying is that Israel's campaign has brought together the Shi'ite bloc of Syria, Iran, Muqtada al Sadr's militia, and Hezballah; made al Qaeda and Hamas embrace the "enemy of my enemy" doctrine and further alienated "moderate" Arab regimes in the region.

In this BBC piece, sources quote: "among those killed in the operation were a baby, two infants, three teenagers and a 75-year-old woman, Palestinians say...Israel says it killed 25 "terrorists"." And here: "Two mortar rounds have hit a convoy of vehicles carrying civilians escaping the violence in southern Lebanon."

State sanctioned terrorism....