"At an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting requested by Lebanon, special envoy Nouhad Mahmoud warned that Israel's destruction of vital bridges, roads and buildings and the killing and maiming of hundreds of Lebanese civilians "will not resolve the problem, but will further complicate it." ----Lebanon Special Envoy Nouhad Mahmoud to U.N. Security Council Meeting.

It's seems obvious that Israel's strategy in attacking civilian infrastructure in Lebanon is to intimidate the citizenry to turn against Hezbollah. This page out of the Joseph Stalin Manual of how to suppress a civilian uprising hasn't worked to well in Palestine though. So I wonder why the Israelis think it's going to work in Lebanon. If anything, the attacks on civilian infrastructure are uniting the Lebanese population to resistance.

Which brings up the question of how to resolve this conflict. Since Hezbollah's capture (NO--it was not kidnapping) of 2 Israeli soldiers was in support of Palestine's offer for a prisoner exchange. The Palestinans offered to release Corporal Gilad Shalit in exchange for the release of 400 Palestinian women and children held by Israel. Israel can stop the Hezbollah rocket attacks by just agreeing to this prisoner exchange. If fact, given the history of prisoner exchanges between Israel and Palestine, one wonders why they didn't do this in the first place.

This is the most logical sequence of events: 1) Israel agrees to the Palestinian offer of a prisoner exchange. 2) Israel agrees to stop their attacks on the civilian infrastructure in Lebanon. 3) Hezbollah stops it's rocket attacks and returns its two prisoners of war.

An alternative to a prisoner exchange might be a financial settlement of some time with Palestine. The US could agree to offer financial aid to Palestine. And Israel could agree to turn back on the money spigot to Palestine.

Of course, Corporal Gilad Shalit might just be a pawn in Israel's greater objective of removing Hezbollah from Lebanon.  Obviously Israel is not going to stand down unless the US demands it. Without US military aid, Israel is an empty shell in a military sense.

Unfortunately, President Bush acts like the US is the client state of Israel, and not the other way around.