it seems like you missed my question.. which was.. why would you justify bombing Lebanon for an attack that was carried out against Israeli SOLDIERS although you said that you regard attacks on armed soldiers legitamate??!! and yes, the civilian deaths were sad.. in fact they were very sad!! during the war period I wasn't reading posts in here but right after the war I would read two types of responses from Israel.. a part says that all those dead are terrorists because they are supporting terrorists (even the children).. another part denies every Israeli massacre and calls it "Arab propaganda"!!! very rarely would I find one of numerous responses condemning those bombings (I assure you that this person would be called a self-hating Jew)!! the reason for this (as I believe) is that Israeli media was passing many lies onto the people of Israel.. you stress on the fact that shahidism targets civilians while when Israel bombs a residential area it does not target civilians.. NL.. civilians are targeted in both ways.. and the destruction always happens to be further more when bombing a region using the latest technology than when using homemade explosives.. both are crimes.. one is called a war crime while the other is a crime attempted by an individual or an organisation which is labelled worldwide as a terrorist organisation.. in the last war on Lebanon.. civilians were targetted and Lebanese infrastructure was targeted in order to make the Lebanese government and people regard Hezbollah as the threat to Lebanon.. the more damage caused by this war the better. the proof to this is the mad bombing Israel carried out during the last few days of the war.. and what about the unexploded cluster bombs it had left behind which are until now costing innocent civilian lives?? the fliers you are referring to have proved to be useless.. there is very little time for people to try to escape after recieving the fliers.. in the village of Marwahen tens were killed in their attempt to evacuate the village.. Israel attacked their cars while they were on the way out!! so.. I don't think we could justify attacks according to who is responsible or what's the tactic used.. under what slogan are they carried out.. (whether Jihad or fighting terrorism).. the result is one.. more destruction.. a larger number of innocent casualities and more excuses for future attacks.. ehm.. don't worry about your long responses.. looks like I'm no better than you are.. LOL.. Have a nice day yourself!!

1. Civilian bombings - You're right. I did misunderstand the focus of your question. In my opinion, the situation is different because gunmen in Gaza/WB targeting IDF soldiers within those areas are within a warzone. On the other hand, the kidnapping, while executed on soldiers, was an infiltration by a foreign militia into Israeli sovereign territory, which is by definition an act of war. Yes, I know people say Israel also infiltrated Lebanese sovereign territority with various flyovers post-2000. However, the difference between flyovers and the kidnapping is a) that no was hurt or intended to be hurt by the flyovers - they were for info, not for attack - and the same, clearly, cannot be said for the killing and kidnapping. b) considering the fact that Hizbullah had ordered the Lebanese army out of south Lebanon from 2000, it is hard to consider south Lebanon as truly sovereign Lebanese territory since the Leb army couldn't deploy there and thus de facto relinquished control of the region. I acutally happen to agree with you that the 'more pain to Lebanon/ bomb, bomb, bomb' strategy was not a good strategy (although this is for so many reasons, many even strategic). I am also personally opposed to cluster bomb use, even though they are legal, and believe that they should be banned because I think that their military benefits are sorely outweighed by the future damages they can and usually do cause. I disagree that bombing IN residential areas is the same as bombing to TARGET residential areas. Unfortunately, the weapons caches that needed to be destroyed were hidden IN residential area and that put the Israelis in a difficult moral dilemma. I'm interested in knowing how you would address things such as weapons stockpiles hidden in schools/mosques, bombs being transported in ambulances, etc. I think it's impossible to find black and white in such a situation. Regarding the fliers, the Marwaheen incident was a tragic mistake - the area was bombed prior to the hour stated on the fliers which was terrible. I do think that the flier distribution could have been effective, especially if the Lebanese gov't would have been more involved in aiding evacuees. I do agree that Israel made policy mistakes in the war. I do take comfort in the fact that many other citizens who thought so as well as trying to hold the gov't to account - it is noteworthy, I think that this most recent war is the most extensively and quickly investigated war in Israel's entire history. I think that this, too, demonstrates a glaring distinction to shahidism (which, in fact, does not consider itself a mistake) 2. Two-state solution. I think it's very encouraging that, although we come from different backgrounds and have different opinions, we seem to have a lot in common: that we both think it's important to forget the who-was-here-first game and the who-did-what-first game and to look to the future instead of the past, that we both think it's important and (since it seems to me that we're both women of faith) that we both believe our religions reject violence and resent those among us who hijack our religions to promote extremism and dissent. I think if more people would start chatting the way we are chatting, it might move things along nicely.