The article is erally well worth reading. I think Israel's actions are going to open it up to scruitiny it has long been able to deflect and stifle.

Quite an insight.

Some very potent observations:

The Pathology Of Israeli Power http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1…

The Israeli self-image of rationality, self-confidence, restraint, pragmatism, and marshal moral superiority are delusions and myths, constructed to protect the Israeli psyche, manipulated by the state to keep alive the specter of existential terror in the Israeli public and to disguise the state's raison d'etre, expansion and ethnic cleansing in Palestine, and maintain the deeply sociologically and institutionally entrenched Israeli military, increasingly blurring the lines between a civilian and military state.

As Antony says, it's all part of their moral decay. At least they have been unable to prevent the newspapers carrying front page pictures and stories concerning war crimes in Qana. Nor have they been able to silence Robert Fisk.

Haim Ramon "doesn't understand" why there is still electricity in Baalbek; Eli Yishai proposes turning south Lebanon into a "sandbox"; Yoav Limor, a Channel 1 military correspondent, proposes an exhibition of Hezbollah corpses and the next day to conduct a parade of prisoners in their underwear, "to strengthen the home front's morale."

It's not difficult to guess what we would think about an Arab TV station whose commentators would say something like that, but another few casualties or failures by the IDF, and Limor's proposal will be implemented. Is there any better sign of how Israel has lost it’s senses and humanity?

I almost wonder if the bombing in Qana was not in some macabre sense, a way to enable to agree to a cease fire without losing face. This "aerial ceasefire" could be a coded offer to Hezbollah for a comprehensive cease fire in place. Also, it will be a test of Nasrallah’s resolve to not return fire to avenge Qana.

If Hezbollah stops its rocket attacks, then the Israelis won't have any excuse. They really will have to observe an aerial cease fire. Of course, this will allow Hezbollah to get on with its resupply. And a resupplied Hezbollah would be an even more formidable Hezbollah.

Israelis could always start bombing again, but then Olmert would have to accept responsibility for the resumption of the rocket attacks, and for making the IDF launch an offensive against a Hezbollah ground defense that had been given two glorious days by the Israeli Air Force to get ready. Political suicide, in other words.