>>Do you have the answer? To me it was an opportunistic way to escalate the fighting that is hapenning in Gaza. In otherwords unjust and illegal.
>
>I doubt any of us can be certain of Hezbollah's motives in crossing the border, killing Israeli soldiers, and taking two of them hostage. They are apparently heavily influenced by Iran, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the face of the map. The current situation certainly distract the rest of the world from Iran's nuclear ambitions, but I am not sure I understand how people think Israel should react. Allow their soldiers to be killed and kidnapped?

I'd say that of course Israel cannot let its soldiers get kidnapped and/or killed.
And I have no idea, personally, of what the border situation was like before the kidnapping. If I'm to believe what I hear it was raining missiles very frequently from Lebanon. And I am totally clueless regarding any connection between rockets from Gaza with rockets from Lebanon.

But from what I see/hear Isreal has gone wayyyyyy too far. Just as the U.S. has gone wayyyyyyyyyy too far in the (alleged) "war on terror".

Seems to me Israel could have strengthened its border posts to deter future kidnappings.
By escalating the way they have Israel knew full well that it was jeopardizing countless regular citizens, yet their deaths seem to be acceptable while harm to the 2 soldiers is not.
Personally, I think there's something bigger at play here, probably involving attempts to get 'reaction' from Syria and/or Iran... then watch the fireworks fly!
Nothing better for the future of incumbents than to have a broadening war to deal with.