Some interesting paragraphs

Tikkun Olam: "Let’s examine Israel’s statements about the Lebanon offensive. Yesterday, Olmert said that Hezbollah had violated “every rule” and brought the “Middle East to the abyss.” Yes, Hezbollah has violated every rule. But it did not bring the Middle East to the abyss because by itself it does not have the capacity to do so. However, Israel, with its massive firepower has more than the capacity to do so and it has through its actions in Lebanon. And one must not forget that Israel played a key role in initiating the escalation with a month of mostly failed attacks and targeted assassinations which killed 20 Palestinian civilians. This in turn led to the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit which in turn led to the Gaza invasion which in turn led to the Hezbollah attack on IDF positions in northern Israel. Of course, the concatenation of events is a bit more complicated than what I’ve made out–but that summarizes it in a nutshell. So all of Israel’s claims that it is the victim here ring false. Yes, in losing its troops to killing and kidnapping it is the victim, but not the innocent victim it makes itself out to be."

Current AP story: "The level of damage inflicted by Israel appeared finely calibrated. For example, a missile punched a hole in a major suspension bridge on the Beirut-Damascus road but did not destroy it, unlike less expensive bridges on the road that were brought down. An Israeli strike hit fuel depots at one of Beirut's two power stations — sending massive fireballs and smoke into the sky — but avoided the station itself."

Arab News: "The source added that the Kingdom wanted to clearly state that there must be a differentiation between legal resistance and unaccountable adventures committed by elements within a state without referring to a legal state authority, or consulting and coordinating with Arab countries. Their actions thus expose all Arab countries to grave danger and their achievements to destruction, [Saudi Press Agency] quoted the source as saying."

Protein Wisdom: "Well, the Pope is certainly entitled to his opinion. And the whole “cycle of violence” bit has been a convenient moral sell for years now, even though from my perspective it is decidedly problematic—and has actually exascerbated the problems in the middle east by refusing to identify the source of the aggression and unrest (though, in the Vatican’s defense, at least they aren’t blaming George Bush—whose failure to place more troops in Iraq, the argument goes, allowed Iran to take over large chunks of the country and emboldened the mullahs to attack Israel with Hezbollah. Which is Andrew Sullivan’s thesis; Sullivan doesn’t seem to allow for the idea that an emboldened Hezbollah can now be utterly destroyed, Iran is blocked off from a meaningful defense of Syria, and there’s very little the “international community” can do about it...)"