>The whole area is "governed" by lunatics.
>I haven't seen Israel deliberately targetting civilians either, but they sure manage to kill/maim a high number regardless! They "target" a Hamas member and if there are kids and folk around, too bad. They fire rockets at cars in crowded streets!!! My guess is that it's done on purpose. I mean, if they feel that destroying the homes of parents of suicide bombers does something positive, they likely feel collateral damage is OK too, to 'teach' some lesson.
>2 kidnapped Israeli soldiers has turned into 35 dead Israelis and 350 dead Lebanese. Brilliant!

Are you talking about Hamas, or Hezbollah? As I understand it, Hezbollah members frequently and intentionally stay in areas with large numbers of civilians, such as refugee camps. What is Israel to do? Not attack, while members of Hezbollah plan and carry out attacks on Israel?

One of the problems I have with these kinds of debates is that people will criticize what one country/group is doing, without offering an alternative. What do you propose the Israelis should do?

>There's something ELSE afoot here. I suspect it has to do with Iran and Syria and things already going bad in Iraq and Afghanistan and elections coming soon in the U.S.

Political debates are full of speculations. Some find that to be fun. For me, I would rather deal with facts, or at least opinions from those who are perceived to be experts on a subject. Do you have anything to support your contention?