Mitch Prothero in Salon (via Juan Cole):

Throughout this now 16-day-old war, Israeli planes high above civilian areas make decisions on what to bomb. They send huge bombs capable of killing things for hundreds of meters around their targets, and then blame the inevitable civilian deaths — the Lebanese government says 600 civilians have been killed so far — on “terrorists” who callously use the civilian infrastructure for protection.

But this claim is almost always false. My own reporting and that of other journalists reveals that in fact Hezbollah fighters — as opposed to the much more numerous Hezbollah political members, and the vastly more numerous Hezbollah sympathizers — avoid civilians. Much smarter and better trained than the PLO and Hamas fighters, they know that if they mingle with civilians, they will sooner or later be betrayed by collaborators — as so many Palestinian militants have been.

For their part, the Israelis seem to think that if they keep pounding civilians, they’ll get some fighters, too.

The fact that the sentence I bolded is being utilized as a line of argument and justification for the targeting of civilians is rather ludicrous. For instance, if the US started constantly shelling Sunni civilians with reckless abandon in Iraq there would be immense backlash — it would be simply unthinkable and counterproductive for US policy. For that reason, the US attempts to be extremely careful in how it targets Sunni areas, Fallujah and some other areas in Anbar province notwithstanding, and it is because the public backlash from overkill would harm American attempts at achieving peace. Yet Israel has utilized this line of thought in its Lebanese strategy, when in fact all it does is ween the moderates away from sanity and toward the radical end of the ideological spectrum. Don’t mistake me, an offensive against Hizbollah’s military positions and arsenal is more than deserved, but attempting to remove Hizbollah from Lebanese society itself via missiles alone is like a brain surgeon attempting to remove a tumor with a baseball bat.

Manuela Paraipan’s latest article on Global Politician suggests that Israel’s attacks on civilian targets in Lebanon is really in the Lebanese government’s best interests:

By shelling Hizballah, Israel is not only doing itself a service, but also to Lebanon. For years, Lebanon has been a hostage of Hizballah and its providers. The Lebanese Prime Minister, Fuad Siniora lastly recognized it publicly, in an interview with the Italian, Corriere della Sera. Siniora said, “the entire world must help us disarm Hizballah, which obeys the political agendas of Tehran and Damascus.”

I will agree that Fuad Siniora would undoubtedly love to have control over his country, with an amenable parliament and a disarmed Hizbollah. His inability to deal with Hizbollah up until this point is rooted in Hizbollah’s popularity and the strength of its bloc and allies within the Lebanese parliament, which has come about as a result of the terrorist organization’s wide-ranging public support and the United States’ push for a truly democratic and representative Lebanon following the Syrian leavestaking. While Hizbollah’s inexcusable cross-border raid, murders, and kidnappings could have been utilized to undercut the group’s hold on southern Lebanon, the Israeli escalation has put Siniora in an impossible position. The continued shelling of Lebanese cities and the deaths of civilians, including Shi’a, Sunnis, Druze, and Christians, has counteracted any wide-ranging ill will Hizbollah afforded itself by overstepping its bounds. Now Hizbollah, which continues on despite heavy pressure from the legendary Israeli military behemoth, finds itself in a much stronger position politically than before. The lopsided use of force against Lebanese civilians who are not directly connected to Hizbollah, and in many cases may have opposed Hizbollah’s existence, is creating a frightening consensus throughout Lebanon despite former political leanings — a shared hatred of Israel.

The bombardment of Lebanon will eventually end, but Hizbollah will not disappear through sheer kinetic force. At best, it will become more of an amorphous organization with a reduced ability to utilize Iranian-made rockets to attack Israeli civilians. While that is an achievable and desirable goal, it does not mean that Hizbollah would be incapable of striking Israel directly through other, unconventional means. It is, after all, a terrorist organization. Instead of solving the problem of Hizbollah, Israel may just be forcing it into another configuration with even greater and more vehement backing from every day Lebanese than ever before. So, no, Manuela, I disagree that Israel is doing Lebanon or itself, really, a tremendous favor currently.

Via the Wall Street Journal Online:

Lebanon’s army, which so far has sat on the sidelines of the violence raging in the country, will join the fight against Israel if Israeli forces invade the country, Defense Minister Elias Murr said on Al-Jazeera television. “The Lebanese army — and I stress — the Lebanese army will resist and defend and will prove that it is an army that deserves respect,” he said. In most of the previous Israeli attacks, including in 1978 and the 1982 invasion in which Beirut was occupied, the Lebanese army largely stayed out of the fighting. Twenty Lebanese soldiers have been killed in strikes on their bases during the nine-day-old Israeli bombardment of Lebanon.

It’s probably somewhat important to note that Elias Murr is the son-in-law of Lebanese president, and Syrian lackey, Emile Lahoud. With Hizbollah holding nearly a fourth of the Lebanese parliament and two seats in the cabinet (energy and foreign ministires), and with Damascus-leaning Murr at defense, the Lebanese army entering on behalf of Hizbollah does not look like an impossible scenario. The possibility is only multiplied when the continued destruction of the Lebanese infastructure is taken into account. Israeli targeting of civilain-heavy areas is meant to disable the transportation networks Hizbollah could utilize to either move the two Israeli soldiers out of the country, or receive logistical support from Iran via Syria. While that goal is most likely attained, the unforuntate side effect is massive popular unrest among Lebanese citizens aimed at Israel, not Hizbollah. All the factors are adding up to a possible escalation with the unexpected entry of the Lebanese army on behalf of Hizbollah, and with popular Lebanese support.