You cannot let them take over Israel.

THey must be stopped now.

You are dealing with an enemy who wants to die, you must punish them.

This is no time for liberal pansying. Yes, Israeli lives are worth more, because the enemy started this.

Your kind of thinking is dangerous and foolish. You must get over this averiah.

An army should never ever sacrifice its own soldiers to minimize civilian casualties.

The result of Israel’s disproportionate weak response will be a future filled with katusha attacks.

Did anybody else hear Walt on NPR yesterday, by the way? They set it up so it was him against an Israeli scholar out of Brandeis and Walt was not contested on any of his assertions.

Dear NPR, next time, there are about 2743 people out there who could actually debate Walt, in case you really want to know why he’s wrong on so many issues that relate to this conflict and America’s role in it.

YOU have created a world where Snuffleupagus and the Care Bears can be considered heroes for standing up to the Wicked Witch of the West! This thrice-convicted pedophile says godspeed to them in their righteous quest.

Politicians – and other people – are allowed to change their views when it hits the fan. That has a way of affecting people’s views, depending. That is OK.

We need unity not carping.

Neo Nazi, don’t worry so much. There are plenty of places live a full Muslim life, and Jordan is 70% Palestinian as we speak. I assume you are a US patriot? I am. This is about ideas not ethnicity.

I also, like you, wish life were not so painful.

It seems that Israeli soldiers’ lives are being valued more than Lebanese civilian lives. Of course some civilian casualties are unavoidable, but if they could be avoided by putting more troops on the ground rather than bombs in the air, we’re not talking about the inevitable, we’re talking about priorities.

Second, the Cabinet called up three reserves divisions today. Oddly, they didn’t call me first to inquire about my opinion. Maybe they read Jewlicious – they should! – but chances are they did this on their own based on the information they have at their disposal which I suspect is slightly more voluminous than the information you and I possess about the situation.

Third, the economic impact of having reserves in place and widening the attack on Hizbullah – something, which as I quote above, Golani and Paratrooper commanders are demanding – will be mitigated by the impact of shortening the war. Don’t forget that Israel’s northern economy is suffering.

Fourth, Syria is on war footing and has been on war footing for days. It will take a single bad breakfast for Assad OR the appearance of weakness and unpreparedness by Israel to have Syria enter the fray. I don’t know whether you’ve read about 1973, but Israel wasn’t prepared and the 2-3 days it took to get the reserves into the field in the Golan almost cost Israel the war…and the state. The loss of Israeli lives in having given the Syrians this advantage in ’73 was significant by any measure and far greater than what we have seen in Lebanon thus far or actually in all those years Israel was in Lebanon. We do not want another ’73 on our hands.

Fifth, your escalation scenario is correct overall from my point of view, but your point #3 is far too brief and misses the reason for the escalation which was, apparently, poor intelligence. The Israelis didn’t seem to anticipate the strength of the Hizbullah resistance, all of its locations, its type, their overall rocket launching capabilities or their missile capability. These guys shot an anti-ship missile at an Israeli warship that actually had its defense systems off because they had no clue that such a missile was in the possession of Hizbullah. I’m not saying, nor do I believe, that Israeli intelligence failed altogether, it is clear they have significant intelligence on their enemy. But it seems they have missed some crucial information. The problem is that once you realize that only some of your intelligence is correct but there are also gaps, you wonder what those gaps might be since they represent the most significant source of danger to your forces.

There apparently was also a flaw in the transmission of intelligence to the commanders in the front lines. According to reports in the media – which doesn’t mean the info is true – intelligence existed about Maroun al-Ras but was to be released only in real time because of its sensitive nature. It seems it didn’t make it into the hands of forces before they went into that village and positions. As I recall 4 soldiers were killed in that battle (another was killed yesterday although the IDF now controls the area). This failure is reminiscent of the Kerem Shalom failure where intelligence existed and in that case actually given to the IDF, but had been acted upon improperly or not at all. That ended up causing the deaths of two soldiers and the kidnapping of one. There was a commission of inquiry about that event and perhaps there hasn’t been time to implement its recommendations, but these mistakes cost lives and they are happening under Halutz’s watch.

Sixth, this is most definitely an existential war. Failure in this war will cost Israel dearly in future wars and attacks. Hizbullah is more than just Hizbullah, it is the front line of two states that seek to do nothing less than destroy Israel. Hizbullah is their laboratory for testing Israel, its resources, its weaknesses and strengths, its ability to do combat and its desire to win. If Israel receives a failing grade on any of these, it will be attacked by larger forces because they will see weakness. Even if Israel doesn’t show weakness, Hizbullah remains a laboratory that can provide valuable information about how to fight Israel. This is why they need to be crushed.

But don’t just listen to me on this, check out Ha’aretz’s editorial today. This is Ha’aretz, not Arutz Sheva, and not some egalitarian, Zionist, Suburban Jew who lives in the US.

I don’t think Ha’aretz wants wider conflict or a deepening war. I know that I don’t. In fact, I wish Israel had run a much smaller campaign against Hizbullah after the killing and kidnapping of the soldiers a couple of weeks ago. But once you are in, you have to go in with the intention of delivering a crushing blow for reasons I mention above. we saw this in Jenin where soldiers lost lives because the IDF didn’t want to damage buildings and wanted to fight with civility. They stopped losing soldiers when they started bulldozing the buildings in their path. And you know what else? They were vilified anyway by the international community. The 8 Golani soldiers who were killed yesterday were ambushed while doing urban door to door fighting. Perhaps a different approach and deeper forces in place would have saved those lives. Will more lives be lost with reserves in place and a stronger force arrayed against Hizbullah? I don’t know, but I think the odds of winning quickly with fewer casualties will improve. I also think we don’t have a choice.

I’ll leave you with the views of the editorial by this fine LEFT wing, dovish Israeli newspaper which has no qualms about criticizing Israel and its military regularly:

The army’s fighting ranks are characterized by determination and even enthusiasm, but the higher command ranks and the politicians look as if they have been frozen in a huge ice cube – the trauma of the Lebanon War. The concern that they may be repeating that unfortunate adventure is paralyzing their steps to such an extent that they are themselves creating a new trauma, that of a home front helplessly being hit by Katyushas.

Israel cannot allow itself to be drawn into a war of attrition, with mounting casualties both on the front and in the rear, that will end in a weak whisper of a draw – which is effectively a victory for Hezbollah. The public in Israel understands very well what Rice also understands: a hasty end to the military operations, without any gains, will result in a renewal of the fighting in a few weeks.

I have seen such posts on YNET all day long.

Olmert is a deplorable PM.

[Ed. note: for a former chanich, I will remove typos, but as for the grammar? I don't have that kind of time...EDK]