So I'm currently praying for Gaza and Israel and Lebanon. At first I was somewhat sympathetic of Israel going to great lengths to recover their kidnapped soldier, even if other factors were at play. I've thought before about if i were president or head of some organization like the UN (yes, i have modest, realistic goals for life), I'd like to be able to guarantee the safety of my citizens all over the world, especially if they were doing something important, like UN relief work (on top of the horrors inflicted on the local people of places like Darfur, it also really saddens me when relief workers trying to help the situation are targeted as well, and i see agencies either just accept it or pull out, as I guess they don't have other viable options). I may have gotten the idea from a West Wing episode where, fairly early in the President's administration, there's a terrorist attact that kills American citizens and he is angry and wants to have some kind of big, as opposed to measured or proportional, response, evoking the protection of citizens of ancient Rome anywhere in the world.

But all that aside, this current Israeli response seems to be spiralling out of control. At first they were causing massive damage (and probably inflicting hardships on a lot of people, blowing up bridges and power stations and whatnot), but at least it seemed that people weren't dying. But now dozens of people have died, including those in the recent clashes in Lebanon, including civilians. Now I'm not really a utilitarian or anything like that, but causing the deaths of dozens of people in order to save one (now three, counting the two soldiers captured by Hezbollah) is pretty ridiculous in my opinion. Just to be clear, I'm also not one to blame Israel for everything-I'm actually pretty sympathetic to them a lot of the time, and in these conflicts I think that those who target civilians intentionally are worse than those who do not (though i think that discounting civilians as collateral damage is not that much better morally). I think the militants linked to Hamas and Hezbollah have a big part of the blame here, but i also hold Israel, as a state and one that portrays itself as the victim, to a higher standard (as I do the US in its war on terror, war in Iraq, etc). This means that I think they should show a LOT more respect for life, especially civilian life, even if their enemies might not and it may lessen the advantage that the Israel (or the US) has over their enemies. And when i talk about respect for life and especially for civilian life, I mean all of them, not just the ones that are Israeli (or US) citizens.

Pray.