Israeli-Hezbollah conflict continues

Israel blockades Lebanon and disables the major airport there; missiles strike the port of Haifa for the first time; more than 100 rockets and mortar shells fall on Israel; hostilities continue:

A day after cross-border raids by Hezbollah fighters brought Israeli troops into Lebanon in force for the first time in six years, Israel sent punishing airstrikes deeper into the country, hitting all three runways at Rafik Hariri International Airport, two Lebanese Army bases. Early on Friday, it struck Hezbollah offices in south Beirut and the main highway between the capital and Damascus, Syria, and later, Reuters reported, a base for pro-Syrian Palestinian guerrillas a few miles from the Syrian border.

The Lebanese government said 53 Lebanese civilians had died since Wednesday, including one family of 10 and another of 7 in the southern village of Dweir. More than 103 have been wounded, the Lebanese said.

Lebanese residents hoarded canned goods and batteries as lines at gas stations stretched for blocks. Supermarkets and bakeries were flooded. It felt, many said, as if the civil war that ended 15 years ago was back.

Israel said that the Lebanese government was responsible for the actions of Hezbollah, which is a member of the governing coalition, and that the cross-border raid that captured two Israeli soldiers on Wednesday was an unprovoked act of war by a neighboring state. Senior Israeli officials said that the military had been unleashed to cut off Lebanon, permanently drive Hezbollah forces back from the border and punish the government for not upholding a United Nations directive to disarm and control the group.

Israel’s military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, warned that “nothing is safe” in Lebanon and that Beirut itself, especially Hezbollah offices and strongholds in southern Beirut, would be a target.

Israeli warplanes have continued to strike Lebanon including the main highway with Syria:

BEIRUT, Lebanon – Israeli warplanes punished the Lebanese capital on Friday, blasting the airport for a second day, shattering bridges, igniting fuel storage tanks and cutting the main highway to Syria. Hezbollah guerrillas fought back with a fresh barrage of rockets.

Police said three people were killed and dozens wounded in the airstrikes, raising the death toll to 60 on the third day of Israel’s offensive against the Iranian-backed militants.

Israel said it was determined to beat Hezbollah back and deny the militant fighters positions they have held along the border since 2000. Hezbollah began the current conflict Wednesday with a cross-border raid that captured two of Israel’s soldiers.

This isn’t just a skirmish to obtain the release of three Israeli soldiers.

Marc Schulman of American Future posts a sample of opinion on the situation.

Michael Young, writing in the New York Times, urges a solution that would, in effect, grant Hezbollah everything it wants from the situation. There is no peace for the UN to maintain and the Security Council members have been understandably reluctant to introduce troops as peacemakers. The only enforceable portions of Young’s proposals are Israel’s side of the deal.