Lebanon had been a great sign of hope around the world with the city of Beirut regaining its earlier glory and again becoming a bustling hub of commerce. Today the airport is in cinders and the city in rubble, and tomorrow seems more like a trip to the dark past than one to a bright future. As military leaders carve up Gaza and Lebanon into chessboards for strategy and tactics, nobody seems to worry about the collateral damage. Collateral damage is defined as unintended damage sustained during a military campaign, and the people of this region are discovering that it means a son’s leg, a daughter’s arm or a spouse’s life, a home or a friend. When you put it in those terms, it is clear that it should be unacceptable in a civilized world. The great nations of the world should be stepping up — and in, if need be — to put a halt to this brutal carnage. To do otherwise is to declare Gaza and Lebanon expendable and to declare their peoples unworthy of civility in this so-called “civilized” world. It is ironic that in a world supposedly moving forward with a matrix of globalized, interconnected economies that for half a century the Palestinian issue has been allowed to fester like a bleeding sore; what is more ironic is that now Israel is plunging Lebanon back into the same pit of hell in which it has sought to leave the Palestinians. Are these the acts of a civilized people in a civilized world? I don’t think so.

Scrolled down and when I read "long-time Peace Now activist" I sorta knew what to expect from this. Moral equivalency at its best: "the Qassams are part of the occupation’s cycle of violence, targeted killings and the like." There's no cycle of violence, Professor. A cycle of violence implies that nobody is at fault, that each side is equally justified in continuing its attacks, and that the reasons for the attacks are long forgotten, substituted by nothing more than a blind rage to "get revenge." Not the case. Sorry. Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories are one and the same, because they both have as an ultimate objective the destruction of Israel and the liquidation of the Jewish People in what they consider Arab Lands. All other motivations, political/social/economic/nationalist, are marginal.

It’s very strange that professor of Russian Studies may write so amateur article. Does this lady have heard about Chechnya? Hallo…The lady, who poses herself as connoisseur of Russian politics and customs may supply more intelligent staff. Having one thousand years of lovely relationship with any flavors of Muslims brought Russians to one simple outcome: Diplomacy doesn’t work with Islamic dudes. This is the fact. And Ms. Golan knows this. But it’s so nice to have EU grants, isn’t it?

She's a professor yet has learned nothing from all of her years (wasted) in universities. Was Russia going to accept a ceasefire with Germany murdering its citizens? No. The only way to stop a tyranical bunch of thugs is to defeat them. You ONLY talk of ceasefires afterwards.

In real life, unlike the ivory tower of academia, when you can't determine the best course of action, you use a process of elimination. The course of action you counsel has been tried and it failed over and over again. It works only in theory. You may say that war failed, too, and that we should give peace a chance. We did. Peace failed. I consider "success" not that I have the love of the Arab nations- that's not an achievable goal. My goal is to be able to live. If peace does that better than war, then fine. But it doesn't, not with our enemies, anyway. So, when threatened by enemies, I fight back, because there are no other options anymore. Contrary to your assertion, by the process of elimination, if I want to live, fighting is the "wise choice". Unfortunately, your line of logic has very few (maybe one I can think of) Palestinians who are even willing to consider it. Therefore, you are very high in the ivory tower stratosphere, Professor. So, recognize the facts - step down from the tower and wait until the Arabs figure out that war is not their best alternative. The best way to do that is to show them. Then come back with your theories. But the timing is wrong for them now. Unfortunately, in the interests of peace we pulled out of Lebanon and Gaza, and your message didn't get through the way you intended it to. It's made us only more susceptible to attack.

Arabs respect Israel only when they understand that disrespect is so painfull. Hesbullah must be slashed, infrastructure of the south damaged. Those are rules of the game.

Whenever Israel takes active steps to defend itself, there will always be a bunch of lefties who insist on giving the Arabs hope. Why do they do this? Why do they keep on giving our enemies the idea that they have a chance to defeat Israel? Obviously this stuff is read in the Arab world and people -after reading this- will believe Israel is hopelessly devided. They will believe that even in the face of unprovoced agression Israeli's are willing to back down. This means that Israel can be defeated. After all, how can Israel ever last, if even Israeli's believe Israel cannot win? This is creating an image of Israel, -an image of a weak country- and in this way the people who write this stuff provoke wars. They give our enemies the idea that Israel can be defeated and along comes radical Islam which wants to give it a try. Now I feel very sorry for Lebanon, I do. But I do not demand of the IDF to fight perfect wars. I do not want the IDF to sacrifice Israeli soldiers and the future of Israel for some feel-good moments. I understand that in order to destroy an army the supporting infrastructure needs to be whiped out. This means roads, bridges, electricity. It is absolutely essential to respond disproportionally so that your enemy knows you are not to be toyed with. You do not kick a tiger. This is the main objective of this war. We would like to destroy Hezballah, but making sure the Lebanese know the horrible consequences of harboring terrorists is a 2nd best objective. Now there are only two ways to achieve this aim. The first way is to kill tens of thousands of civilians. The second option is to make a big scary noise by blowing up infrastructure. I think that last option is better. Peace Now wants Israel not even to try that last option.. But the leftwing friends of Peace Now in Europe support the terror war against Israel. They support Iran and they join anti-Israel demonstrations which call for our destruction. The Socialist Party in Holland, the Green Left party, those are not the fringe but mainstraim parties and they march with Muslim extremists. They support sanctions against Israel and express their understanding for terrorism. I know Peace Now means well, but you must always take stock of the people who join you in your struggle. The left in Europe believes Israel is a mistake which needs to be recitified. Now ask yourself why they support Peace Now. Every war, is a war of choice. You have the choice to defend yourselves or lay down and take a beating. If an Israeli demands the latter, he is actively calling for Israel to be attacked.

Sometimes people have a dream. The Lebanes dream was: rebuilt a country and let Hisbollah be the only group keeping its arms. Let 2 minsters be in the cabinet. But: Lebanon woke up ,the bubble exploded. Hisballah followes orders only from Teheran, not Beirut. They had 6 years to built their operation centers al over the country , mostly in civilian premises. This war is indeed a war of to-be-or-not-to-be. The HISBOLLAH wanted to be more HAMAS than HAMAS. and: they were clear and straight foreward with their final goal !! Eliminate the Zionist entity!!! and: check out your own country: a strong minority of Shiites ! Isn´t the Saudi regime not afraid ? Israel at this moment is doing the dirty work for all of us !!!

I was pleased to find Prof. Golan's opinion on the internet, because there are very few people courageous enough to offer these views at this time. What Prof. Golan recognizes is that no matter how skillful Israel is militarily, it will for a very long time (several generations at least) remain a relatively small country surrounded by much poorer countries that resent its presence in what they view as "their" part of the world. Something must be done about that situation. You cannot bomb people into prosperity. You cannot win respect at the end of a howitzer or by trageted assassinations. Fear, yes. Hatred, certainly. Respect -- never. You cannot build settlements outside your recognized borders and say they are part of a defensive strategy. You cannot put a wall on the far-side of the Green Line and say it is now your border, take it or leave it. People in the Middle East -- both Jews and Arabs -- have long memories. The current attempt to teach the Arab militants a lesson is not going to end hostilities -- more likely it will extend them by another generation or two. Israel should retire all it's brilliant generals and instead put all its emphasis into diplomatic and economic solutions that will increase the prosperity of the entire region, not widen the gap between the haves (Israelis) and the have nots (everyone else). The U.S. government will not, I predict, always do whatever Israel expects of it. Even AIPAC is not that strong. At some pount the Israeli militarists and expansionists will go too far, and the American people will say, "Enough Already." Another Shattila? More attrocities? These can't be predicted, but they must be expected. When that happens, what is Israel's "Plan B"? The jackels will definitely be circling. What will you do when the 800 pound gorilla that you have come to rely on decides that it has other business to take care of? From the available evidence, there is nothing to suggest that anyone in the Israeli government or IDF, and not many in Israeli society, have begun to think that far ahead. Instead they flout their military superiority (largely the result of US support) and act like they, not the USA, are making it all happen. No one believes this: without US support, Israeli policy would have to change overnight. Israel needs to wake up: it is a vulnerable, little country in a hostile region, and in the long run the only way it will stop violence against it is by winning people over to its view of things. Try building hospitals in Lebanon, rather than bombing children. Try building communications infrastructure in Gaza, not degrading people and the little they have into submission. Grow up: you cannot count on remaining the USA's plucky little brother forever. You need to make it on your own. You will never be able to do that militarily. To return to the analogy that one of the other posters drew: The Soviets could afford to crush Nazi Germany -- they had more men, more guns, more ammunition, a bigger "fresher" army, more materiel, and the backing (military, financial, etc.) of the USA and Britain. Also "unconditional surrender" was a real possibility. Currently, Israel has a far better military, largely do to western financial and materiel support. But there is no chance of unconditional currender. And there is no guarantee that America will always be there. Look what happened when America turned against the Soviets after the war. It took 45 years, but eventually the Soviet Union could not sustain itself. Stop your delusions of grandeur and look in the mirror and on the map. You must either make friends with your neighbors, or eventually you will not be there. There is not, so far as I know, a single instance in history of a country surrounded by hostile forces that has held out forever.

Once again we hear from a so-called intellectual hiding in the ivory tower yapping about her fears and concerns that have no basis in fact. It is sad that in Israel we also have our pathetic professors that shout the hard-left wing fears and phony concerns about innocent citizens. Always criticizing and second guessing in time of war. Of course, spending their days in the comfort of Jerusalem. I noticed that Professor Golan is a long-time peace now activist. Does that mean the rest of us living in Israel are for war and destruction? What a self-righteous title. Snobbery abounds in our higher education institutions. Most of us want peace and security but have come to the reality that Terrorists do not want to compromise unless they are under siege and appear to be losing their battle. We must not relent until a viable political solution has teeth and a prospect for successful implementation.

This article reminds me of a huge chunk of left-wing swiss cheese with its numerous holes. First, Golan raises doubt that Israel's deterrence ever worked, but from '73 till '93 (when Oslo ruined it) it worked fine. Then, professor Golan goes on to say that the poor "moderate" Hamas members who supported the Prisoners' Document -- a simple rearranging of the same call for Israel's destruction -- are being sidelined. That's the point prof. Golan, we want to sideline TERRORISTS. And what really made me laugh was her suggestion that Israel comes to an agreement with Syria. I would love for her to elaborate on her plan for negotiations with a regime bent on Israel's destruction. Oh wait, I don't need her to elaborate, the model of Oslo and negotiating with Arafat will suffice.

The only solution for Israel is a strong Lebanese government. Keep in mind that the Lebanese government is made up of a majority that opposes Hizbollah and wants peace with Israel, namely Christians, Sunnis, and Druze. Destroying Lebanon's infrastructure only weakens the government ... not a wise move. The U.S.'s only focus should have been to strengthen the Lebanese government, and sit back and watch Hizbollah disappear. Currently however, let's hope this war does not start and end in vain.

On what, you idiot?

IF YNET PAID THIS SO CALLED PROFESSOR, THEY SHOULD GET THIER MONEY BACK QUICKLY. IF YOU LEAVE IT UP TO THESE TYPE OF PEOPLE, THERE WOULD NOT BE A ISRAEL. AMERICA OR ANY FREE WORLD. WE WOULD HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO RAISE CAMELS. THE ENTIRE WORLD WOULD BE LIKE SODDOM AND GEMORRAH WITH PERVERSIONS OF ALL SORTS, LIBERALISMS PERMISSION TO DO WHATEVER ONE PLEASES WITHOUT CARE OF THE NEIGHBOR NEXT DOOR IF THE COLLECTIVE DOESNT LIKE THE COLOR OF HIS GRASS HE WOULD HAVE TO PAINT IT.... ITS GREEN !!! GRASS GROWS GREEN!!! THE SKY IS BLUE!!! CANT YOU SEE THAT? THEY TRIED PEACE FOR 3000 YEARS... DIDNT YOU KNOW THAT?? WHAT IS DIFFERENT EXCEPT THE YEAR, NOTHING !!! AND THESE CRAZIES TEACH THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD? SHEMA YISRAEL.............. THEY TEACH THEM TO FOLLOW WITHOUT THINKING, REASONING OR LOGIC... THE SKY IS BLUE DAM IT!!!

Then disengage from Kiryat Shmona - that should buy maybe 1year of Peace Now. I fully endorse Leftist appeasements

Peace Now is living in a dream. In 2000 Israel, pulled out of Lebanon. In 2005 Israel pulled out of Gaza. Israel plans to withdraw from much or even most of the West Bank. All these actions have caused huge divisions in Israeli society verging even on violence. However, the world lauded us and the economy boomed and the profits of doom, the right wing, were told “see, we did a good thing.” Then came the crunch. The Palestinians elected Hamas as their Government and made a total fool of Abu Mazen. Violence started, Sderot was shelled and still the Government forged ahead with its withdrawal plan. Then came the killing of our soldiers and the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, the brutal and horrible murder of Eliyahu Asheri and the attack and kidnapping of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev by Hezbollah and the killing of more soldiers. Now, once again, Israel is at war, her survival is being threatened by the mentally ill President of Iran and his retarded puppets, Syria and Hezbollah. What is worse is that Israelis are attacking the government while we are being attacked and are feeding the fire of anti-Semitism all over the world. In most countries this sort of behavior would be called treason. Would these holier than thou leftists and peace activists please tell us how they will convince those bent on our destruction and the annihilation of the Jewish people to accept Israel's right to exist. Further, they must inform us where they would like to have the "New Israel" after their efforts to appease the Arabs result in all the "refugees" being given the right of return and a new Arab majority is established in what was Israel. Have you forgotten that the “Peace” loving world stood by while the Nazis butchered 6 million Jews and that with all the nice words of support from the United States, the world, particularly the Europeans, will do exactly the same again? Maybe Peace Now should be called Shoah 2 Now! I think they owe us an answer!

Or should she change her name to golem?

Professor Golan must have made a typo when she wrote we began this "cycle of violence." I wonder which planet she is on. Causation is important. Answers are not so hard. The infrastructure of Hezbollah must be destroyed completely whether it lies in S Bieruit or in S Levanon. The leadership must be detroyed. And then we should look at root problems. If we could dismantle the drug trade from Lebanon to France, would this weaken Hezbollah? If only olives were as valuable as hashish. Or maybe just shift the profits from the N of Levanon to the South of Levanon. You cannot build a modern state whose main economic activity is the growing and trade in drugs. Turning over the buffer zone to NATO will be as effective in stopping attacks as turning over Rafah to the EU. Or Sinai to an international force pre '67.They will turn tail and run for cover and not be able to stop infiltration of Hezbollah again. The only way to stop the terror is to win by destroying Iran's nuclear facilities now before it is too late and by destroying Syria's tanks and air power asp.

What about all the collateral damage caused by the Qassams fired indescriminately into all oarts of Israel?

Along with B'tselem

The perennial seething against the state of Israel by hostile elements must have some useful purpose. Otherwise, why would otherwise intelligent, kind and loving people such as the Persian people support a belligerent leadership to administer the country of IRAN? The one thing that I find rather disturbing is how the president of IRAN stokes the flames of war by allowing his military to attack Israel from Lebanon with the assistance of Syria. The newer, longer range ordinance brought into play by IRAN in southern Lebanon combined with the outrageous statements made by the president of IRAN against Israel, including the proclamation that he is going to unleash the entire religion he practices upon Israel. With the President of IRAN taking charge as the leader and instigator of this war against Israel as well as the supreme Islamic leader of IRAN stating that he won’t allow his mercenary army to disarm or disband, there is no alternative but to hold those who are calling the shots in southern Lebanon fully responsible for their actions. The old saying may be very applicable in this instance, “if you are going to take on a job, do it as it should be done properly and as best as is possible to achieve the objectives or don’t do the job at all”. Following through on important objectives often is impossible due to external interference in matters of vital national security. The underlying potential capabilities of the aggressors must be fully neutered, or there won’t be any chance at living in peace, at all. A full ground invasion into the Bekaa Valley and coastal Lebanon cannot be postponed indefinitely. The enemy must be pushed away from their offensive positions. The escalation of this conflict is inevitable if IRAN fails to order an unconditional cease fire and disarms their mercenaries immediately. It is little wonder that IRAN is attempting to make WMD. Despite having to listen to the president of IRAN make the most bizarre statements possible, the international community is not seriously taking into account the great danger to the entire world should the present leadership of IRAN ever possess WMD with the delivery systems to attack Israel, Europe and ultimately, the United States. Any form of prisoner exchange would simply reinforce the efforts of the aggressors, as they would exploit such concessions as being victories won by their cause. When 85% of all weapons in the hands of hostile forces are destroyed or seized, then something meaningful would be achieved in terms of an impetus to enhance the long-tern prospects for peace where there is little hope for it otherwise. Allowing the mercenary army of the supreme Islamic cleric to hold any offensive weapons whatsoever would render all of the suffering imposed on the real prisoners here, the civilian population and all the deaths caused as a result of his aggression without any meaning at all. For the sake of all of the innocent victims on all sides of the conflict, the only manner in which to be certain that this aggression cannot be repeated in the immediate future would be to fully destroy any capability that Syria and IRAN have to project power in Lebanon and Gaza.

I completely support Israel's ware to destroy or severly weaken Hizbollah. But was disturbed by the story in the Lebanese press. Does anyone know we are attacking Baalbek? http://dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=74210

Israel must be much more aggressive and not concerned about killing any civilians because weapons are hidden in civilian areas. All of Lebanon may have to be completely destroyed and turned into rubble. IDF: Be much more aggressive!!!

I found the answer myself. Even though Baalbek is NW of Beirut, it is termed a "Hezbollah stronghold" (NPR) or even a headquarters "Sheikh Hussein Mussawi, the head of Hezbollah, sent me a message inviting me to interview him at his headquarters in Baalbek" (Washington Times)

Peace Now is a well know proxy of Zeropean Union. They are not real Jews. I strongly oppose negociation with terrorists but Israel must negociate a swap with Hizballah: 2 Jewish soldiers against Peace Now activists, sorry terrorists.

Lebanon and Palestine are very different. Hezbollah has used the past few years to build up their rockets and hate Israel, who has to act against them. The Palestinians have been occupied and have had settlers (have you ever heard of them?) gradually taking over pieces of the West Bank. Rogue settlers have also been cutting down their olove trees and polluting their water supplies. Israel and Palestine have bot made massive mistakes and have both missed big opportunities for peace. To write about the Palestinians without mentioning the settlers is a joke.

Galia has a point. It is far easier to rally the troops, circle the bandwagons and start kicking ass. Israel's reaction, although understandible, is purely an emotional reaction. Our pride was hurt - we were attacked. Let's show them (Hizbollah) that they shouldn't mess with us! The problem with this is that, in the long term, we might be doing ourselves more harm than good. We must choose our actions carefully, define what our goals are (both short term and long term), and what are the best actions to achieve these goals. By reacting so disproportionally and causing so much damage to Lebanon's civilians and its infrastructure, Galia is pointing out that Israel is playing into the hands of the most Islamist and extremist elements of the Arab world. By trying to eliminate Hizbollah, we are in fact making it stronger in the long run. Is this our goal? If it isn't, then maybe we need to take a step back and think. In hard times like these, those who dare show dissent, face harsh criticism. However, time will show that people like Galia Golan were right.

So to protect israel from Hizbollah's firing of some ineffective missiles (read the casualty statistics) - you would advocate that Lebanon be totally destroyed. Do you also think Israel's enemies have the right to unleash (if they could) such punishment everytime the state of israel commits a small hostile act (bombing of family on gaza beach, targetted assasinations, etc etc)? If that's the case then I applaud your even handedness. If not then that makes you a racist and a jewish supremacist.

I would support simply stopping if there was any reason to believe Hezbollah would stop, either shortly or even in the medium-term. I'm not convinced that, if Israel stopped fighting, negotiations would do much. As for "collective punsihment," I think we need to stop talking about ourselves this way. I heard a radio interview this morning on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation with the man who used to be Lebanon's Minister of the Economy. In answer to a question about how much economic damage was being done, compared to that experienced in the civil war, he said the cost would be as great. But the extent, he said, was not at all comparable. And won't be as long as Hezbollah doesn't succeed at spreading the fighting far and wide. He said there was tremendous damage but that it was concentrated in areas known to be Hezbollah strongholds and militia installations. The majority of Lebanon and Lebanese are not being bombed. Those people remaining in Hezbollah strongholds are not civilians, many of them, they're Hezbollah fighters and sympathizers (including reservists). In essence, he confirmed what the Israeli military have been saying, that these attacks are as pinpointed as possible. My sincere belief is that, if the fighting can be stopped before Hezbollah turns Lebanon into Iraq, we will learn that, yes, there was enormous damage, but there was an element of "Jenin syndrome" to the reporting of it. My guess is that many of the "civilians" (though probably not the majority) eventually will be identified as Hezbollah, or at the very least people harbouring Hezbollah militia and equpment in their homes. I also think, when the smoke and fog clear, it will be seen that the majority of the country's infrastructure stands, and the majority of the population were not threatened. I'm not speculating here, I'm basing this on the former Minister's account from the inside. (He was speaking from Beirut.)

Shafiq (in the beautiful city of Dublin), did you read the statements by Hizbullah's political leader in Iran? (Also note that he's in Iran. This is not an indigenous Lebanese movement for "liberation.") Anyway, he says pretty clearly that the goal is to destroy Israel. That's what Israel is responding to. If you can't see that, and you think Jews just like to go out and kill people for fun, then you are the racist. They are faced with an existential threat, and not for the first time. As for the family on the Gaza beach, the Israelis didn't kill them. Nor was there a Jenin massacre. And nor did they kill Mohammed al-Dura. Yup, they've killed other people, mostly people hellbent on killing them. But they do not target innocent people. That makes them quite unlike your heroes, whose express goal is the destruction of Israel and the people in it.