Okay, I wake up this morning to the news that the Israeli Military has killed a bunch of civilians hiding in a basement:

QANA, Lebanon (Reuters) - An Israeli air strike killed 54 civilians, including 37 children, on Sunday, prompting Lebanon to tell U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice she was unwelcome in Beirut and fuelling world pressure for a ceasefire.

The raid on the southern village of Qana was the bloodiest single attack during Israel's 19-day-old war on Hizbollah. Rescue workers dug through the rubble with their hands for hours, lifting out the twisted, dust-caked corpses of children.

The U.N. Security Council met for an emergency session to discuss Lebanon at the request of Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Annan said he hoped council members would realize "how dangerous the situation is and how it can't escalate and get out of hand and the urgency for them to act."

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed "deep sorrow" at the bombing, but vowed the war against Hizbollah would go on. He told Rice the army needed another 10 to 14 days to press its offensive, a spokesman at his office said.

As anger convulsed Lebanon and the Arab world, several thousand protesters chanted "Death to Israel, Death to America" outside the United Nations headquarters in downtown Beirut and some smashed their way into the building.

Rice, who was in Israel, said she was saddened by the Qana air raid, but stopped well short of calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Her mediation drive in tatters, Rice will leave for Washington on Monday to work on a U.N. resolution that could achieve what the White House called a "sustainable" ceasefire.

It also said the Qana raid showed the critical need for Israel to take "the utmost care" to avoid civilian casualties.

Then I see Condi Rice spinning the fact that the Prime Minister of Lebanon has canceled talks with her... To hear Condi talk, it was her idea, but no matter...

The next thing I see, is an orgry of justification for the Israeli attack by conservative blogs, based on this:

Graphic images smuggled out from Lebanon show how Hezbollah is waging war amid suburban homes.

A stream of images, obtained exclusively by the News Ltd, depicts how the extremists are using high-density residential areas as launch pads for rockets and heavy calibre weapons.

Dressed in civilian clothing so they can quickly melt back into suburbia, the fighters carrying automatic assault rifles ride in on trucks laden with cannons.

The photographs from the Christian area of Wadi Chahrour in the east of Beirut were snapped by a visiting journalist caught in the midst of the war, then smuggled out by a friend.

I go expecting to see images of Hezbollah terrorist using women and children as shields. Those pictures must have been taken down (sarcasm intended). What I saw was a bunch of pictures of urban street fighters in SURPRISE, an urban environment!

But the line that takes the cake for me in all this, is this one from Wizbang:

"These pictures illustrate what may have happened in the bombing that killed 54 Lebanese civilians. How many of the civilians were actually terrorists? We may never know."

Well... its probably a safe bet that at least 34 of them were not...

I find myself agreeing some with Digger in his post on the subject. I do not sympathize with Hezbollah, and I agree that Lebanon should have evicted the Hezbollah terrorist a LONG time ago. I also agree with Israel's right to defend herself. To suggesst that Israel should just let terrorist sit accross the border and shell their cities would be ridiculous. As Digger says,

"If someone was launching missiles into cities in America I can guarantee you there would be action and while civilian deaths of those who are truly innocent are always a travesty, there's nothing that can be done about it when you allow evil to flourish amongst you with no complaints."

But that does not mean we should not be concerned about the innocents dying in this war. That does not mean we should dismiss the deaths of 34 children as simply collateral damage. It does not mean Israel should be exempt from standards of acceptable warfare. Condi Rice is NO Collin Powell. She seems ill equipted to handle this type of crisis, and there I dissagree with Digger... It IS a crises.

There needs to be an international Peace Keeping Force in Lebanon. Hezbollah MUST be dissarmed. Israel must take more care in determining the legitimacy of targets, and the U.S. must show more leadership in dealing with this issue. At the moment, this conflict is contained. A few more images of mangled children and it may not be...

Others Blogging:

Rantingprofs, Captain's Quarters, PoliBlog, Michelle Malkin, Outside The Beltway, Flopping Aces, The World Wide Rant, Israel Matzav, The Strata-Sphere, Murdoc Online, Wizbang, Blue Crab Boulevard, Macsmind and The Corner TigerHawk, Sister Toldjah, Taylor Marsh, Secular Blasphemy, TPMCafe blogs, Pam's House Blend, From Beirut to the Beltway, All Spin Zone, Dohiyi Mir and Abu Aardvark All Things Beautiful, The Volokh Conspiracy, Solomonia and Atlas Shrugs Talking Points Memo and AMERICAN FUTURE

Its campaign has killed at least 312 people in Lebanon, the vast majority civilians, and displaced half a million. Thirty-two Israeli troops and civilians have been killed.

I agree with Israel's right to defend itself, but where does defending itself stop and punishing innocents begin?

Drum sums it up pretty well for me...

ISRAEL AND THE BLOGOSPHERE.....Via email, Matt Yglesias suggests that I address the topic of why the liberal blogosphere doesn't write very much about Israel-related subjects. I can only speak for myself, of course, and my own reasons for light blogging on this subject are both predictable and banal. Still, here they are:

1.

It sparks unusually vicious comment threads, something this blog hardly needs since comments here spin out of control often enough anyway. Needless to say, this phenomenon is fairly universal. For examples, see here and here.

(In case you're curious, the other subjects that seem to spawn more venom than usual are posts related to religion or feminism.)

2.

The fight between Israel and the Palestinians is over half a century old and seems intractable. It follows the same rhythms decade after decade, full of hypocrisy and posturing from both camps, and there seems little to say about it that doesn't eventually boil down to, "Both sides need to ratchet down the rhetoric and rein in their own extremists." Aside from being pointless, there are only just so many ways you can say this.

(NB: This may be a plausible excuse for inaction coming from a pundit or a blogger, but it's worth pointing out that it's not a plausible excuse for a president of the United States. Are you listening, George?)

3.

The conflict is fantastically complex, and the partisans on both sides are mostly people who have been following events with fanatical attention to detail for many decades. Ordinary observers can hardly compete in this atmosphere — do you know the detailed history and long-accepted norms of behavior that have developed in the conflict over the Shebaa Farms since 1967? — and this has produced an almost codelike language of its own over the years. One misuses this code at ones peril (see #5 below).

4.

As with the conflict itself, punditry is heavily dominated by extremists on both sides. I normally take my cues on subjects I'm inexpert in from people whose sensibilities are similar to mine, but it's nearly impossible to figure out who those people might be in this case.

5.

Related to 1 and 3, posts that display any sense of sympathy for the Palestinians run the risk of provoking a shitstorm of accusations of anti-semitism. (I gather that the opposite is more frequently the case in Europe.) Language is actually as big a problem as substance here, since words and phrases that are used innocently often have specific meanings to longtime partisans that are unknown to the rest of us.

But I would add, as long as Israel continues to ignore international law, invade other countries, buldoze houses, and blow the hell out of people and in some cases their families... I have litte interest in their conflict with the Palestinians. Like Drum says, both sides have thier share of extremist...

Palestinians teaching their children to be walking bombs is just sick. Israeli's destroying the houses of "suspected," terrorist is also. And I dont give a rats ass about the Pro Israel bloggers having a go in my comments. I have both Palestinian and Jewish friends, used to make for some interesting dinner conversations...

Jay Tea has a piece on Wizbang supporting the Israeli actions in Lebanon. I respect Jay's opinion, but in this case I think we need to be taking an active role to lower the tensions in region, not spread the military conflict until it becomes an all out regional war. In that case, NO ONE wins.