Some comments in my last post about the current situation in the middle east provoked some comments via e-mail from Mom. She reminded me that the Israeli people are besieged by nations that would like to see them quite literally "wiped off the map". They face terrorism on a daily basis on a level that, mercifully, none of us have ever known. In that I would agree.

However, Israel is enraged right now, and an enraged nation never makes wise choices (ie: see "America"). They're lashing out at the first sign of trouble, and right now it's the yee-haw-let's-blow-shit-up Hezbollah terrorists in southern Lebanon. Unfortunately, the victims seem to be primarily the more liberal civilians of the North. Syria is also complicit in the Hezbollah situation, but so far has escaped any retribution. Rage never reinforces accurate targeting.

Indeed, yesterday Israel landed itself in very hot water when it bombed a post manned by United Nations personnel, killing four unarmed UN observers from Austria, Canada, China and Finland, respectively. A report claims that the observers contacted Israeli forces several times to report friendly fire. Each time they were assured that the shelling would stop, but each time it did not. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has angrily stated that, given the circumstances, the targeting of the UN position was "apparently deliberate". This of course has been rebuffed by Israel.