Jane, I have seen your posts for several days and I have been thinking of what to reply to you... I live in the Gallillee, not in the topmost northern part of Israel but near Haifa. I have no political or religious interests in these sad circumstances that have fallen on both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border like a fog of smoke and disaster that is equal for everyone who is living here. It is true that History is a complicated thing that has made havoc in this area every now and then, and that memories of past wrongs suffered are living in the hearts of people here, especially the older generations. That is why there is so much hathred here, that flares up at every possible spark. Many people of my age, though, wish nothing more than to go on with their usual lives, going to work, paying their bills and educating the children. We are oriented to the Future, not the Past... Those things are more important to us than who is battering whom in the political arena at the moment. And be sure, that EVERYONE in this area is suffering right now, on BOTH sides of the border. People, and I write PEOPLE without distinctions, dare not go to work and leave their kids at home. People save their last money and have no place to go. We hardly know how we will be able to pay our bills at the end of this month. And every now and then the sirens are howling. AND people die -south as well as north of this border/ We need peace and safety... Can you imagine what it is like not to dare to go out to buy bread or milk? To go to the post office to pay your bills while booms of barrages of rockets are heard just a kilometre away? Could you live the life that we are living here right now? If you came here and tried it, I believe you would moderate your pointw of view a little. Finally, the solution will be found in negotiations and a strong force policing the border area, but there is no way Israeli forces can go home and sit and watch TV while rockets rain down on cities, villages, roads and hospitals. Sorry, Jane. This is real life. Get real, will you!

Don't you see that basically we all, on both sides of the border, are having the same troubles. NONE OF US want to see their people killed, we ALL want to go on with our normal lives!!! The trouble is not the Israeli people or the Lebanese people, because all usual, decent, hardworking, ordinary people want to live in peace. It wasn't a peaceful person, with peace on his agenda, though, who killed and kidnapped soldiers in a border patrol. So, the trouble between the two people was triggered by a third part. So what I want to tell you is that I see in the two of you some differences, but MOST OF ALL, I see two honest, morally correct, peaceloving persons, who BOTH want peace for themselves and their loved ones. And BOTH of you should have it! If Hizbollah had been an ordinary political party and living by ordinary civilian rules, I would have no objection to its coexistance in the Lebanese society whatsoever. Unfortunately they have made themselves a state within a state with a military that represents no democratically elected majority of any country, nor follows any international laws of war or peace. THERE is the problem, Period,

Dear J, As I live in the northern parts of Israel, I can assure you, that the death toll among Israeli civilians would have been MUCH HIGHER, if said civilians had not 1) spent the last 28 days in shelters or 2) fled this part of the country entirely. Some peolpe have not seen daylight since the fighting started, having their meals sent to them in the shelters by the army or welfare organizations. Others have had their ordinary lives interrupted by sirens up to ten times a day and do not dare to leave their homes or secure rooms. Low death tolls among Israeli civilians in comparison to Lebanese do not mean that Hizbollah's attacks are less dangerous or deadly than those of for example IAF. -They are deadly, intense and exclusively directed at civilian targets. It is just that the Israeli civilians are better protected than their Lebanese counterparts. THIS SAID, I do NOT support killing of ANY civilians. Soldiers do have a specific status in international and moral law, just as you say. But don't forget that the killed and abducted soldiers were on a very simple, non-aggressive routine patrol of the border...