Warning: this might give some people high blood pressure.

On December 8, 1941, Japan engaged in a sneak attack on a U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbour. America retaliated by warning Japanese civilians to evacuate a small area of southern Japan, before engaging in limited airstrikes. confined to that area. There were, unfortunately, some civilians killed in the airstrikes, among them women and children. America, under immense pressure from most of the rest of the world to cease hostilities, did suspend military action in the afflicted area for a little while, and its president offered profuse and heartfelt apologies. However, it insisted on continuing its efforts until Japan was neutralized.

Total bunk, right? We all know what really happened...and there weren't many in the world who opposed it at the time. Even the atomic bombs, so contentious in hindsight, were seen at the time as a means to limit casualties.

So now we have an unprovoked cross-border attack, illegal under international law, on Israel, this time. This has been followed up by over fifteen hundred rocket attacks. Most of them were relatively harmless, but the intent behind them was lethal. If Hezbollah had the technology, you can be sure the Israeli death toll would be considerably higher. If Hezbollah had the kind of tech Israel has, there wouldn't be an Israel any more. Give Hezbollah and Hamas and like organizations full credit: they don't hide their anti-Semitism behind diplomatic doublespeak, like, say, the United Nations and most of Europe do. It's right out there in the open, the defining characteristic. To be a member of Hezbollah, you have to believe in death to Israel, there's no compromise allowed.
Of course, Japan didn't hide their military assets in civilian neighbourhoods. The Japanese have too much respect for their own people to do something like that. Not so Hezbollah. It views Lebanese citizens as little more than propaganda pieces, and so it operates exclusively in civilian areas. It's a no-lose situation for them: either Israel's too chicken to come after them or a bunch of innocent people die. (Then again, most Lebanese in the south are highly sympathetic to Hezbollah, so the concept of "innocence" is a bit tainted.)

So what does Israel, beseiged on all sides since 1948, do? They drop leaflets warning civilians to evacuate. They broadcast messages into southern Lebanon saying the same. Then they engage in limited airstrikes over areas in southern Lebanon from which rockets have been seen to originate. (And if you think the number of sorties flown isn't "limited", you have little concept of the power of the Israeli air force fully unleashed.) Wherever possible, they've made every effort to pinpoint their strikes. Unfortunately--see above--Hezbollah isn't playing fair: they'll hide assets in hospitals, kindergartens, wherever they can get the most "innocent" bang for the buck. Saddam did the same. It's called "human shield", and it too is illegal under international law.

The Jew-hating world is almost completely united in calling for an immediate ceasefire, because they like it when Hezbollah lobs rockets into Israeli towns willy-nilly, but it's a war crime when Israel aims. Jews dying--who cares? Palestinians dying...that's just unconscionable!

Oh, and while I'm out here on that limb...that attack on the United Nations base? Sorry, no sympathy here. First of all, it should have been cleared. The United Nations has a policy against remaining in a war zone. It wouldn't surprise me overmuch to find out elements within the U.N. were hoping for just such an attack, for the same reason Hezbollah hopes for the deaths of innocent bystanders, the better to pin the blame on the Zionist infidel. The U.N. needs to be scrapped, and if a few of its buildings are scrapped in the process, oh, well.

My support is squarely behind the Jewish state, no matter how many children and old ladies make the front page of the Toronto Star. Israel deserves to be left alone, and if it has to fight until it is alone, so be it. Wasn't one Holocaust enough?