>>>The reaction to Israel's military response is entirely dependent on your point of view. From Israel's point of view it makes perfect sense because they are attacking an enemy, wherever they may be hiding, which has declared as it's mission the destruction of Israel and is openly known to be backed by the Iranians which also have openly called for the destruction if Israel.
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>>Hezbollah is not a threat to the existence of Israel. Hezbollah has no possible way now or in the near future of wiping Israel off the map. Therefore this can not be used as an excuse for a heavy-handed response.
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>By the same argument Al-Queda is not a threat to the existence of America / the West

You're right. Al-Queda is not a threat to the existence of the west/America, but is lethal to its citizens. A big difference.

> and yet 9/11 was sufficient to attack a country on the other side of the planet with a coalition of forces, occupy it for several years, implement a regime change, and during the actual fighting to fire thousands of missles into it. (I agree with the worlds response by the way. The Taliban and AL-Q need to go asap).

I agree with the response as well. To me it seemed measured and logical.

>Furthermore, Hezbollah are backed by Iran, another country who has declared it's intentions towards Israel in no uncertain terms and they do have the means, or soon will, to inflict great harm on Israel.

They are a decade away from a nuclear device. Mounting in on a missle and delivering it with accuracy will take even longer. Before this happens someone, I'm sure, will destroy their facilities.

> These countries openly threaten Israel and attack it in various ways. Whether they can totally destroy Israel or only inflict limited damage is really not the point here.

Sure it is. This entire argument is about measured response.

>>The killing of 100's of people, the destruction of the infrastuture of a nation.... is not a reasonable response to the killing of 6 Israeli soldiers and the kidnapping of another 2.
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>It is not about the 6 solidiers. I'm surpirsed that you would still argue this angle.

What's it about then?

>>Heavy-handed responses like this (shows of strength) are very short sighted and prepetuate the image that Israel is a war mongering nation that doesn't care about arabs.
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>Or perhaps that Hezbollah are antagonists that dont care about Israelis.

That's a given.

>Don't get me wrong, I am not agreeing with the destruction of Lebanon infrastructure and it's terrible what the civilians have to suffer who are caught up in the middle. In the end this a hugely complex problem and I don't think there are any easy solutions. If there were then the problem would have been solved already.

I think the Arab Peace Initiative's idea of Land for Peace will work. The arabs have proposed it every one of Israel's neighbours (governments not sub-national groups) have bought into this and so has Palestine. We are on the cusp of peace.

> Like I said, this is never going to end.

I give it 5 to 10 years. After that it will be Arab governments fighting their own exteremist citizens instead of fighting Israel.