The Israeli-American invasion.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: Israeli-Lebanese War, 2006

Israel's invasion of Gaza and Lebanon illustrates the futility of war. It is a blunt instrument that exacts an unbearable price on civilians, and it aggravates problems rather than resolving them.

By the first week of August, Israel's attacks had killed more than 700 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, many of them children. It turned hundreds of thousands of Lebanese--as much as one quarter of the population--into refugees. In Gaza, it killed more than 150 people and created a humanitarian crisis by destroying the only power station there. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights all condemned Israel for committing war crimes.

Hezbollah, too, committed war crimes. It precipitated the conflict with its cross-border attack on Israeli soldiers and the taking of two hostages. It killed dozens of Israelis and terrorized hundreds of thousands more by repeatedly sending rockets into civilian centers.

Even though Hezbollah committed these unjustifiable acts, it escaped with its reputation enhanced, as millions of Arabs and Muslims swelled with pride to see some Arab force finally fight back against Israel.

As a result, Hezbollah is in an even stronger position. It can claim to have stood up to the fourth-largest military in the world not once but twice now (as it takes credit for having expelled Israel from southern Lebanon in 2000 after eighteen years of occupation).

Meanwhile, Israel's moral reputation, which had already fallen steadily after forty years in the West Bank and Gaza, fell even further. And its military reputation suffered as well.

Israel's offensive did not make it more secure.

Nor did the footage of the corpses of Lebanese children. Played over and over again throughout the Arab and Muslim world, the images stoked the hatred of Israel. A fraction of those who watched this coverage will translate their rage into terrorism not only against Israel but also against the United States.

For this was not just an Israeli invasion of Lebanon, it was an Israeli-American invasion.

Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. aid, and has been so for decades. From 2001 to 2005, "Israel received $10.5 billion in Foreign Military Financing--the Pentagon's biggest military aid program--and $6.3 billion in U.S. arms deliveries," Frida Berrigan and William Hartung of the World Policy Institute wrote. "The bulk of Israel's current arsenal is composed of equipment supplied under U.S. military aid...