>Well, it was you who started with "If indeed Israel...". My point was that "Since talking about acceptable numbers doesn't make much sense, than any number is acceptable?". And since Israel is already using the same excuse (that civilians will die anyway), they seem to take little care to avoid civilian deaths. And ms. Rice proposes to wait a few weeks? For what, to see how many Lebanese cities will be flattened?

Actually it was someone else who brought up the fact that even killing hundreds of members of Hezbollah would be too many, so I asked what is acceptable, but I think we are getting sidetracked.

Israel has taken care to avoid civilians death. It gave the civilians in southern Lebanon warning so that they could evacuate before seizing some areas of southern Lebanon.

No, Ms. Rice proposed that there is no point in a cease-fire that will only result in us coming back to this point at some time in the near future. Do you believe that Hezbollah has suddenly changed its mind, and no longer wants to attack Israel?

>Not that much, but they'd have different responsibility - to build a country now, not to recruit fighters to liberate it. They could claim victory, claim they are the liberators - but very soon they'd have to get down to providing water, electricity, phones, education.

Yes, Hamas was suddenly given the power to run Gaza. It turns out that being the opposition (in this case as Hamas was to Arafat in Gaza) is a lot like being the 2nd string quarterback: everybody loves you, until you are actually in charge and have to start producing results.

>>and although I am not terribly well-informed on the complexities of the West Bank, it's my general belief that moving back to pre-1967 borders is in Israel's best interest.
>
>Agree here.

I am a big fan of the Frontline series on PBS. This is a link to a show I hope to watch sometime in the near future to better understand the radical elements in Israel.

>Funny that all this happened just a day after Hamas expressed a will to recognize Israel and negotiate. As usual, whenever there's a good chance for peace, something hits the fan on either side.

Expressed a will to recognize Israel? I mean, how hard is it? I would like to see a link if you have one.