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From legitimacy to out of control

"This war began with a sack full of legitimacy. No state can allow its soldiers to be abducted. Interestingly enough, not only did a few Arab leaders agree with that stance, so did many Lebanese who realized that Hezbollah had placed them on a collision course with Israel. Three weeks later, the sell-by date has passed on that realization, to be replaced by deep humiliation, suffering and anger. Why wouldn't a Lebanese who has seen his home flattened into concrete confetti, his neighbors and their children killed by the hundreds and the likelihood of the school year to start on time fade away, begin to recoil? After all, he is already convinced that this is not merely a war against Hezbollah, but rather an all-out war against Lebanon, against him, whether he is Christian, Druze or Shi'ite."

Sad, but all too true - as Zvi Bar'el writes in Haaretz. Read the full piece here.

Meanwhile, the realities of life "on the ground" in Beirut is reported by the BBC:

"People keep asking me, "Do you know when it will stop?"

I shrug my shoulders, and say: "Your guess is as good as mine."

Then they ask: "But Beirut - will they bomb Beirut again?"

"What would be the point?" I reply.

Then they bombed Beirut again.

Dozens of displaced children living in a school in a quiet neighbourhood near the city centre heard terrifying loud bangs in the middle of the night."

Read the complete report here - and ask, what is the point? other than create wholesale misery and recruits for Hezbollah.

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