blind to the long-term:
This policy has misfired spectacularly. Hizbollah has taken casualties but remains entrenched, while in the rest of the country hundreds of civilians have died in bombing raids that make a mockery of the term "surgical strike". This has merely hardened Lebanese, and, indeed, world opinion, against Israel and must have gifted to Hizbollah the support of many Muslims and Arabs not previously on the side of militant Islam.editorial/Herald 24.Jul.06
For Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to blame the media for presenting "a twisted image" where "the victim is presented as the aggressor", is testimony to his own distorted lens. UK Foreign Minister Kim Howells, clearly incensed by the scenes of wanton destruction in Beirut, moved on to Israel last night, in no mood to mince his words and with the apparent backing of Downing Street. In Haifa he said he hoped Americans understand what is happening to Lebanon. He is ideally placed to describe the situation to Doctor Rice. Ultimately, special relationships should be about owning up to the truth, however unpalatable, not nodding along, as Britain has appeared to do so far. In the short-term, the Israelis must hold their fire to allow UN aid convoys into southern Lebanon, or the mathematics of this aggression, in which the Lebanese death toll is tenfold that of Israel, will become even more asymmetrical.
