I am a 16 year old Jew living in Baltimore, MD. I have many friends and some family living or visiting Israel, so this current crisis affects me greatly.
I have been a member of Dkos for a long time (look at my UID#), but was rather astounded by some of the comments and diaries on the current Middle-East crisis. The majority overlooks the fact that Hezbollah started this--- rather putting the blame on Israel. Apparently, Israel is doing whatever it can to inflict harm on the Palestinian and Lebanese people?
Some news just put on Yahoo
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.
This is the true difference between Hamas, Hezbollah, and Israel. Israel makes an effort to avoid civilian damage etc., while Hamas makes an effort to inflict it.
Remember what started this current conflict. Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli Soldiers. Hezbollah is now being shut down.
Israel has been here before. Israel was in Southern Lebanon. And it got out. Yet it was still not enough. Moving out of Gaza was still too "unilateral". Apparently, dealing with Anti-Semitic Leaders that are truly committed to the eradication of Israel is a hard job.
UPDATE: other way in which Israel is more humane than any of its enemies. Israel sent LEAFLETS to houses that might be in the path of a bomb. Can you see Hizbollah doing that?:
(Side note: By writing this diary I am in no way justifying many of Israel's wrong actions. However, many posters on here have given one-sided approaches favoring the Palestinian Side. These posters have not taken into account at all that Hamas or Hezbollah are committed to the eradication of Israel and would love to see all the Jews dead. I guess this is a counter to that.)