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the Republicons (I'm still looking for the right word to indicate those Republicans, Neocons, Right-Wingers, Religious Right Fundamentalists and otherwise insane, violent, hateful, narrow-minded, generally untruthful, twisted thinking people--who vote Republican; Republican isn't exactly right (it's close), so I'll go with Republi-cons for now).
Remembering that with them, it's "all or nothing", "black or white" and never anything in-between; worse yet, it's also common for them to state blatant falsehoods based on pure ignorance (often involving their dictomic thinking), such as "You're with us or against us" or "If you oppose Israel's actions, you're 'Anti-Israel'".
I don't know why such thinking works. I was just listening to some Republican Congressman say "Israel's just going after their infrastructure"..., "So they can rebuild their Democracy". He was arguing somehow that by destroying their country, they would eradicate the "terrorists" so that Lebanon could rebuild their government and do it right this time. Simply insane; but he said it so eloquently and so confidently, I'm sure that many people who haven't thought this through would be agreeing. His "Democratic" (for fair and balanced coverage; wink) opponent was someone who'd really know better as he was older and had previous experience (having been a part of the Congressional peace delegation in Lebanon many years ago when Israel bombed them and Reagan stepped in calling on both sides to stop the fighting)(apparently, it was that act of aggression by Israel that led to the actual birth of Hezbollah; how ironic). Alas, for all his age and experience, his explanations didn't sound confident or were a little complicated or whatever--he was right and expressed pertinent facts, but the flash Republican would come back and say "I disagree... blah, blah, blah" and simply "seemed" to win, hands down. I puzzle over that too, how can the truth and right answer be blown away by someone simply saying "you're wrong" and spouting a few catchy (but fallacious) pre-designed "phrases" with overweening confidence. Perhaps I've answered my own question; confidence is appealing--and the ability to speak well can let someone who is otherwise a dumbass 'beat' someone with real wisdom in terms of convincing an audience.
Some of the things they keep saying bother me. "Israel is the 'victim' here!" (how dare you think otherwise), and they're only 'defending' themselves. If they could actually make effective action against the actual perpetrators, they would have fair grounds for taking action; but bombing a whole region into the stone-age isn't justified by any means. They don't have justification for that type of response. As for being the "Victim", Israel has been abusing and killing Palestinians in unjustified actions for years--not to mention the fact that they are in a sense "occupiers" of their territories, some in a somewhat justifiable manner and others in an unjust manner (and this one is a significant cause for much resentful and/or rebellious behaviors of the Palestinians). Nevertheless, they have been seriously abusive and engaging in 'terrorist' tactics themselves, but when the other side finally gains and uses similar capabilities against them... suddenly they're the "victims". They just don't want anyone within reach of them to have the same capability for offensive behavior as they do. Understandable, especially if those neighbors actually use that capability as Hezbollah did. Still, Israel did overreact--and when you're being shelled by artillery and you have some missiles, is it any surprise that you use them? Indeed the very question of who did what first is hard to answer--and it's not black and white that all of a sudden, Israel is the victim. It depends on exactly what start date you choose; and you can't honestly choose one since it's been back and forth almost continually--and there are potentially valid excuses for retalliation by either side that includes both aggressive actions (violence) as well as offending policies (oppression).
There's no easy answer. However, it's important for Americans to remember one thing... Nothing we hear from (a) the Bush Administration, (b) the Congress, and most importantly, (c) the Mass Media (M$M). They lie. They distort. They mislead. They deceive in everything they do. As sources of information go, within all major "News" providers in the U.S. deception is ubiquitous. If they say it, something's wrong with it. As for our government/politicians, from Republicans (and, alas, many Democrats as well) nothing can be trusted. If they say it, it has been adjusted to manipulate and support their agendas. So, if they say Israel is a victim, it's not. If they say Israel has a complete right to "defend" themselves, somethings been twisted... as in perhaps they aren't "defending" themselves but rather engaging in excessive military response intended to inflict pain on civilians as well as Hamas and Hezbollah...
Nothing is as simple as our leaders would have you believe. It may be that neither side is "right" (almost certainly so); it's a gray area and shifts regularly. Even if the people of Lebanon elected hard-liners against Israel to lead them, they don't deserve to have their cities, towns and villages reduced to rubble. I mean, if people deserved to have their country decimated for having elected violent, insane, terroristic (a new word?), hard-liners (who religiously follow their agendas) to lead their government... we'd better stock up on survival supplies because we did that very thing ourselves. Neocons/Dominionists and Republicans in general all fit those negative descriptions and worse. Having endured much oppression by Israel, they elected leaders who hate Israel. Having suffer a decay of rational thinking and tolerance, we had hate-filled leaders elected either by us, by a defrauded electoral system, or both. Who deserves to suffer here? In both cases, it's those who lead us and those who support them (those who resemble them or, at least, who agree with their leadership). If only there were true justice in the world.
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This video is from Shimon Peres's 80th birthday. President Bill Clinton sings John Lennon's 'Imagine' with 16-year old Israeli phenomena Liel, 40 Israeli children, and 40 Arab children! It's quite an inspirational piece! 
