A new study produced by an Israeli research group (and, unfortunately, disseminated by the AJC, which should stay out of this one) argues that Israel's military assault on Lebanon over the summer was not "disproportionate" given that moral ratios go out the window the instant one side starts using civilians as shields:
In several other instances, Israel bombed vehicle convoys that were trying to leave the combat zone in southern Lebanon, killing many civilians. Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group, said shortly before the war ended that it had documented the deaths of 27 Lebanese civilians killed while trying to flee.
Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, wrote shortly after the war that the Israeli military “seemed to assume that because it gave warnings to civilians to evacuate southern Lebanon, anyone who remained was a Hezbollah fighter.”
Nowhere in this Times piece is how the war might have been executed differently had Israel mounted a stronger and more comprehensive ground campaign. Instead — and as any many pro-Israel bloggers and commentators have been banging on about for months — the ineffectual and devastating air campaign not only spared too many Hezbollah fighters but made distinguishing them from Lebanese innocents all but impossible. (Phoning households where Nasrallah's goons were thought to be taking refuge and telling the owners, "You have 10 minutes to skedaddle before we powder the place," may seem magnanimous in theory but it doesn't quite work when a) those same goons can probably overhear the warning, b) your being held hostage by them axiomatically limits your possible escape routes.)
As it happens, months before those two soldiers were kidnapped and this whole conflict inaugurated, Israel had wargamed a scenario where it went to war with Hezbollah. The only difference between the rehearsal and the show was that deployed boots compensated for dropped payloads in the former. The result was an almost 5-to-1 loss of IDF troops to Hezbollah fighters, which was deemed unacceptable and which is why Lebanon now looks like Sarajevo.