Wonder if this will appear on the conservative blogs and editorials from our so-called friends who are looking for every negative op-ed they can find. Friends which are bashing us right and left! http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3292865,00.html #47 Yes, Israel made some bad mistakes. Yet all of Israel's distracters both foe and friend fail to mention fighting guerilla war amongst professional guerillas is time tested to be most daunting. Fighting a tactical war against terrorists on one front and a tactical war against gorilla terrorists on the other is something I would not wish on anyone especially a tiny country with few friends and many enemies. A little army fighting on two fronts with the aid of Iran, Syria and Russia is not something to trash but something to be awestruck of. Many say Israel has been asleep while Hezbollah was arming themselves digging deeper into southern Lebanon. However that is one part of the equation. The other part is what was Lebanon doing? Like the Poles and Germans, Lebanon took a leaf out of their book by proclaiming they knew nothing and the whole world jumped on that rationalization. Make no mistake it was a lie then and it is a lie now. Time to ask how Israel has been occupied for the past 6 years such as the bloody intifada, everyone has forgotten already. Trying to rebuild ones stature in the international community which was undeservedly taken away has been a an up hill climb one at best. Then the economy suffered greatly because of the intifada. So easy to beat one up without looking at the whole picture indeed. And I only mentioned two aspects of many. One point I see which is not by coincidence few will discuss is why the rush to a cease fire and why from the US? Why from the US with the aid of France? How could the US trust the UN let a lone be part of this watered down excuse of a resolution they knew full well was bad ? So many questions so many choose to ignore.

Excellent article, 100% on the mark. The only facit of the problem Rabbi Pearl didn't address is why a jewish government faced with what must be known to them, would acquiesce to such evil. I suggest a sequel entitled "Dam Yehudi Lo Hefker" or "Is it?" to address this point

Israel needs to do whatever is best for Israel and forget the rest of the world. Let the critics' words just roll off your backs; just like the Arabs do. For nearly 60 years you have had to fight to stay; and it will not get any easier in the future. What is the UN going to do to you? Slap your hand and say don't do it anymore? Who cares about the useless UN. Good news is that Arab on Arab violence is rising; and more deaths result from that (the majority of them go unreported), than what is caused by the Jews. There is always a ray of sunshine behind all dark clouds if you look hard enough.

How do so many people in the world fail to see that it is the arabs attacking Israel. And then all they do is run and hide amoungst civillians, because they know the western world are real human beings. They realize they are to worthless to fight with a real army, so they resort to this.

For every action, there is a reaction. If you hit somebody, you should expect that he or she will hit you back. So, as long as you insist at oppressing people and causing them damage, you will get a reaction that might one day cause your destruction. Force is not the solution. Discussion and accepting and traeting others as you would like to be treated is the solution: compromise.

This bloke got everything total opposite of what it really is. Ph.D? Practicing Rabbi? "Television’s Portrayals of Jewish Themes and Characters"? Institute for Wholly Living? He looks like a regular spin doctor to me.

THIS SHOULD BE POSTED IN EVERY NEWS PAPER AROUND THE WORLD, A PERSONAL COPY TO ANNAN AND ON EVERY AVAILABLE WEB SITE. OUTSTANDING.

It is strange that somebody who has a Ph.D did not realize that Hizbullah killed only military soldiers with few civilians. But IDF criminals killed few Hizbullah soldiers and more than a thousand civilians half of them are children... so, if you are comparing lives' values (using math to evaluate life), you should know that 1000+ lebanese (the number of murdered lebanese civilians) is more than 20+ on your side..that means your IDF things 1 polish jewish living in the Arab land equals 50 Arab lebanese living in their lebanese villages. Oh.. by the way, I will give you F in math, and I will revoke your Ph.D. till you finish your math classes.

On contrare, there are some people, albeit just a fraction of the world's population, which feel sorry for Israel's Jews (and occasional non-Jews) killed. Over 70 Evangelical Christians side with not only the green line borders of Israel, but with a greater Israel...to the Jordan River. For this, they are ridiculed, by Israeli but mainly American Jews (most of whom never set foot in Israel nor want to). When Israel's FM on TV says that it would be easy to hurt Lebanon's infrastructure...vs the difficulty of just Hezbollah, what can people think about we Jews? Jewish fragmentation isn't helpin. Just read some Jewish papers for examples of hate filled rhetoric (against the Israeli establishment). Perhaps Israel should withdraw from the UN for awhile? Then, let it's enemies negotiate among themselves. But first Israel must through the "blame game", you know, who is guilty of treason for allowing Hebollah to begin with. It's very sad.

Israelis need to rekindle the attitude they once had during '67, Entebbe, Iraq's nuke site bombing, etc...this was the survival mentality my friends in Israel once possessed. There were no negotiations with enemies then...and there should not be now. Israel is falling into the hands of World opinion. Terrorists do not care about World opinion. Terrorists simply care about taken Jewish and Israeli lives. No land deals, prisoner swaps, etc, have ever brought true peace for Israel. All of Israel's negotiations have played into the hands of the terrorists. This has to stop. The only way to stop terrorits is to kill them before they kill you and to send clear messages with military might. The Torah specifies how to deal with enemies of the Jewish people. We need to pull together as Jews and support our IDF and one another at all times and when war occurs again...and it war will happen again unless we make our demands clear to terrorists. Go IDF and Israel!!!

Your Illegal Government has captured and detained over 10,000 Arab prisoners and that was not enough to provoke an Arab country to wage war! Now that 2 of your soldiers are kid nabbed you wage a war on innocent life?!!

And everytime we Jews and Israelis give up our Land to Islamic killers, they come back with a vegeance whether it be from Gaza or So Lebanon. To give up our Land does not strengthen us. Contrary to "UN facts," it greatly weakens us. Never Again. Never Again to you our Land.

IS SAID WITH STRENGTH AND CONVICTIONS OF THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT , NOT ONLY WITH THE IDF. THIS GOVERMENT HAD THE STRENGTH AND CONVICTION TO GIVE IN .. NEVER AGAIN? HERE WE GO AGAIN..? HOW ABOUT FOR THE ISRAELI CITIZENS. WHO ARE VOTING... .LOVE IS BLIND.....

... that so many Jews are among those critics and dectractors.

The message is clear and i support it at 100% , but as we all know , everyone hates us and the only way to live is to forget the one who hates us and solve our problems by are own ways.

the majority of the world is not listening. We readers on YNET know this is true, but the majority of the world chooses to side with media spin kings: the terrorists. Why? Because they have learned to manipulate the media to their benefit. Isreal is too busy trying to tend to its wounded to wait for a camera crew before loading victims into an ambulance. Israel cares more for the honor of its dead than to cart dead bodies to ehere the cameras are gathering and create a ghoulish spectecle of parading a dead baby around for hours so journalists can have a field day. Becase Israel and Judaism cares more for life than the terrorists with their espoused beliefs care for death. No one will sway opinion with pictures of live people, it's dead people that sell newspapers and turn opinion.

even civilians , children anything they must cease to exist because when they will grow up with their anti semit ideology they will attack israeli citizens wherever they are . Now as it seems for those shiits loosers in lebanon and for their allies in the lebanese political system, they have won the war , but are they illusive or what? they loss everything and within a weeks they will launch a new attack on israel , because olmert lacks of confidence and because you jews and israeli dont support your sons and daughters who sacrified their live to make a free middleeast . Hassan Nassrallah , you will go down soon and i will piss on your grave .

You raise a interesting and troubling hypothesis. Does the world really devalue Jewish lives? The Islamic world hates the Jews because of Israel, but why is Christian Europe seemingly so anti-Israel? I think it is a combination of viewing Israel as a colonial power (even though Europe created Israel by committing the Holocaust), seeing the Palestinians (maybe all Arabs) as the technological underdogs (has great appeal to the left wing intellectuals), enjoying some payback in comparing Israel to the fascist regimes of the 30s and 40s (makes then feel better about their own continent's history), and probably a good share of ages old anti-Semitism based on the lingering claim of deicide.

you know, for a moment you almost got me cry, then I found out how stupid this article is. and full of bullshit, it's like drawing the war between the whole muslim world and the whole Jewish world, which is not true at all, and in lebanon the Israeli airplanes were striking everywhere, and if you don't know in lebanon live more then 18 religion, and the bomb didn't come down to ask them to what religion do they belong. Plus, most of the Arab/muslim countries (which we don't think they are lebanon friends) like Saudi Arabia and Jordan,and Egypt. blamed Hizbllah for the fight, and they encouraged Israel in secret and some times openely to get rid of hizbllah who is creating trouble for them in their countries. and in the other side, there are lots of Jewish people who are against Israel, and against the zionist and against this war lead by US and Isreal against lebanon and the palastenians.and one of such jews is Jews against the zionists (www.NKUSA.org), not to mention that not all the people who died in N.Israel were Jews, some of them were ARab-Israelis (Palastenians is the real word). So, Pls next time, before you start your bullshit, read a bit more, and don't ask for cheap tears from people.

Right On! You could not be more on target. How long will it be before this all starts again? Not long, and Israel and the Jews will certainly be judged to be at fault in the fraudulent , bogus court of world opinion.

How do you expect the world to change its attitude, if your own government accepts it at face value? Forget the UN and EU, pick a PM that values Jewish life, understands how to protect it and is really concerned about it.

Amazing! We carry the same thought but we reverse the Arab with Israeli lives in your statement. I guess we see it from two different angles. An please do not say your angle is better because it follows the discussion of who started first, like: is it the chicken or the the egg? We'll never get anywhere thereafter.

We have had enough of rolling on our backs and playing the victim every time we lose a battle. The world asks for our restraint because they know all too well what we are capable of doing if not held back. A small example: 1110 civilians killed during 33 days of bombardment, most of whom are children. We are strong and we will assume responsibility for these actions without, without playing the victim card anymore. It is due to people like you that we are called racists, weak and inhumane and we would be grateful if you would refrain from painting us as such. As a Rabbi you should try to unite and not divide. Make us strong, not by painting us as “victims” but rather by showing the world that we too can be merciful and just. By the by not all Arabs are Muslims, and we do discriminate against the Christian Arabs too. People who commit acts of murder against Israel should by all means be held accountable for the said acts, but this does not mean that we have the right to become barbarians and go on a rampage killing people all over the place. We always complain about Muslim radicals, but what would you call yourself? No difference I would say!

Someone is finally saying it. There are too many self hating Jews in Israel and this liberal ideal needs to be re-thought. I hate to sound like a broken record, but this never would have happend under Bibi's leadership

Israel has to bear some of the blame if it pays heed to the nonsense described by Rabbi Pearl. The reality is that Israel is a very small country, and as such has less influence in much of the world than the oil producing Arab states. Only 60 years ago the world stood by and watched while 6 million Jews were exterminated. Israel must rely first and foremost upon itself. Unfortunately, this will take a change in government. The world was almost universally wanted Israel to wipe Hezbollah off the map during this last confrontation, but the hesitatant, vacillatory Olmert government wasn't up to the task.

This is one of the best opinion pieces i have e ver read. Written in a clear and crisp manner. This is the truth and no one would be able to rebute it.

While Jews are brought up to contribute to humanity. It's obvious whose life should be worth more.

your calculations are wrong.every life regardless is valuble.that is what islam teaches.but when the whole wide world sees the IDF kills children day after day,destroy homes,kill elders,frighten masses,spread hatred and fear in that part of the world,then the only response is (which is a shame that it came to this)an eye for an eye. israel has to know by force or other that its tactics must end and it must change course 180 degrees NOW.or god have mercy on all of us.

I'm beginning to wonder if Oil Money is being paid as a buyoff to various world leaders and officials for their influence. Why else for the double standard. After all look at the oil for food program scandal.

Dear Mr. Pearl: You just don't seem to understand there is a large difference between a country and a terrorist group. For Israel to engage in the wanton distruction of homes and the slaughter of civilians, and then claim to be justified because a terrorist group does the same is a kin to likening Israel with that terrorist group. The Lebanese people do not equal Hezbulla, and should not be treated as such. I think that your argument would change if Lebanon had the military might and responded to bombing Jewish extremists by carpet bombing Tel Aviv, bombing all routes of escape for civiliians and then told the world that they told those civilians to get out. In the current situation it appears that the lives of innocent civilians doesn't matter to Israel unless they are Jewish. The number of Lebanese Christians, and Muslims killed has outnumber the amount of Jews killed in this latest bout of violence. Not that numbers matter. We expect that terrorist will slaughter civilians, they have no morals that is what they do. A state should be held to a higher level. And in the case of Israel, it has time and time again demonstarted its ability to take out individual targets, without slaughtering civilians, so why do so now. Why do so to a people that have already suffered countless years of war, and a people who themselves are fighting against the attempts to gain power by the armed wing of hezbullah. What Israel has done is not protect itself but it has put a stop the support of outsiders and has all but guaranteed a resurgence of popular support for Hezbullah amongst most Lebanese, regardless of their religion. When your government can't defend you, you turn to those who can. Isreal has sowed the seeds for a greater future conflict, and in each surviving child, and sibling of those slaughtered it may ahve created a new member of Hezbullah. Hezbullah is not a nation and declaring war againt that group does not justify the bombing of a neighbour country. Israel has now become the murder