Am I the only hard-hearted soul that didn’t immediately chastise Israel when I heard this weekend about the errant missile strike killing dozens of children and civilians? Tim Russert was reading through all of the condemnations from Europe and the Arab world on Meet the Press yesterday - “despicable” and “deplorable” were used several times. It seems the world was so quick to call down fire upon Israel, but why is it that Hezbollah receives a daily pass when each of its rockets attempts to do the same and Nasrallah would be elated if the children and civilians were Israeli. Israel errs and offers its apologies to Lebanon and the world - pressure and condemnation. Hezbollah strikes its intended target with no apologies - silence.

Ben Stein recognizes the same in an op-ed this morning and asserts that unless we change our tactics in this battle, we are destined for defeat. (via RCP)

* Because the Hezbollah — as has been well reported — launches missiles at purely civilian targets in Israel as a matter of course, and no one in Europe or in the American left says “boo” about it. It’s considered the Hezbollah’s “right” to kill Israelis and when they do, they boast about it and promise to do more;

* Because it’s been also well documented that the Hezbollah hides behind civilian targets and adjacent to civilian dwellings in Lebanon to fire its rockets at Israel, and when Israel fires back and mistakenly hits a home with civilians, the world of “intellectuals” and “thinkers” blames Israel and calls Israel bloodthirsty;

* Because when the Israelis kill civilians, they apologize, but when the terrorists kill civilians, they brag — and the beautiful people scream at Eretz Israel and excuse the terrorists.

A quick hard-hitting read.