...civilians are caught in the line of fire. Israel doesn't cheer when it makes mistakes and civilians are killed. Israel does examine its own conduct, and criticized Sharon heavily for allowing Arabs to kill Arabs decades ago in camps. Do you see any move by Hamas/PA/Hezbollah to try to limit their destruction? Is there any public self-criticism? To the contrary, they proudly state their goal of simply eliminating the State of Israel, in any form, size or shape. Their tactics of rockets into Israel, like the buzz bombs of WWII, are pure terror weapons against civilians

I don't think Arabs are less human than anyone else. That's a straw man argument, and not a real one. In fact, the writers so intent on justifying the bloodthirsty cruelty of the adoration of the child-murderer demonstrate a lower standard or expectation of some Arabs than they expect from Israel. It's a reverse of the more prominent double standard. I do agree with the comment that surely not everyone in Lebanon shared in the festivities, or agrees with Hezbollah.

As to Iran's missle test, how could that be in "response" to Israel's alleged test air attack? Obviously, Iran has been developing long-range attack missiles for many years. Are these for "peaceful" purposes, like its nuclear program purports to be? Don't get me wrong, I do not advocate a military attack on Iran now, by Israel or the US. But the Iran threat is a real one, and it extends beyond Israel.

Yes, and according to numerous human rights organizations, they have had plenty of cases of deliberate, intentional civilian deaths (IE, gunshots to the head at point blank range) that have gone completely unpunished.

Are you so daft as to believe that when "the child killer" came back to Lebanon, everyone was going, "Yes! You did it! You murdered a child! Woo!"?

What kind of perverted reality are you living in?

I think there's a loss of perspective here ... which I find completely shocking, given that the Arab/Israeli conflict and the murder of children are both such non-emotional topics ... (do I have to point out the irony here?)

No, the Israelis do not cheer when civilians are caught in the line of fire, but I'll bet there would have been parades, cheering in the street, and general joyous celebration of the returning troops if they had succeeded in 2006 ... despite the fact that innocent civilians were killed, not because of it. And, yes, there would have been many an Arab press outlet referring to it as a "celebration in Israel of the death of innocent Lebanese children!"

I've seen nothing to suggest that the cheering in Lebanon was anything more or less than a celebration of another "victory" over their enemy - not even Mona Charen is trying to claim that the crowd was explicitly chanting for more dead children. Frankly, I'm more concerned that the Israeli government would exchange a convicted child killer, along with several other live prisoners, for two dead soldiers. I'm hoping there's more to it than that, but I join with those in Israel who are concerned that the message to the enemy is that there's really no need to keep captured or kidnapped soldiers alive ...

The Sharon situation is a bit more complicated than being rewarded for his error. Israel did rebuke him for not protecting Sabra. Later, despite this, his security/military background and Israeli politics led him to be PM.

But what I mostly would like to see is some perspective as to the context and the conduct of the Arabs. Do they make no errors? Do they make no deliberate terrorist attacks? Or is everything they do justified as "resistance" even if the victims are clearly innocent civilians. Arafat engineered numerous acts of direct terrorism, including hijacking of planes, the Achillo Lauri, and the 1972 Munich Olympics attack. In fact he was directly rewarded for this resume, which he proudly wore. Abbas, the supposed "moderate" was the paymaster for the 1972 murders. Neither of these guys was ever criticized by any PA agency, court, or by any Arab country.

If the only criticism is of Israel's mistakes, why is that?

Certainly nobody is perfect, yet the differences here are conspicuous and eloquent between the occupant (Israel) and those (Palestinians) who are longing for their independence; and USA was not granted independence by the British Empire at that time peacefully, in case you might have forgotten.

1-The Sharon situation is a bit more complicated than being rewarded for his error. His career as murderer of civilians (Sabra and Shatila and Qana massacres) led him to be PM!!!

2- Arafat engineered numerous acts of direct terrorism led him to PLO leader recognized by the whole world!!!

** Ironically, Israel does distinguish between children as victims only when they are parts of its own citizens; and, luckily, it doesn't consider its adults as such since they are all IDF members, its modern and armed to the teeth militia. Come on, you can fool someone every time, and everyone sometime but you can not fool everyone every time”.