Nahum Barnea

I just happened to see part of McLaughlin Group on NBC and, on it, John McLaughlin cited Israeli columnist Nahum Barnea who wrote beautifully and passionately after the Qana Massacre that he was aware that the rules of engagement had changed among the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), with generals no longer told to work around civilians in Lebanon in getting their Hezbollah targets.

Barnea says the generals may believe themselves covered, but Barnea himself, he said, was covered in shame because the people in Lebanon who cannot get out are often the weakest members of society: the children, the elderly, the handicapped, the very poor, the sick... and these people are being caught again and again in Israeli strikes.

Yet Barnea is just one of many voices within Israel who, in the face of these lethal strikes, has said, "Wait a minute: yes, Hizbollah is bad, but is it right to strike right within areas where we know innocent civilians live."

These are the Israelis I've had the pleasure to know: those who work very hard for the great nation of Israel yet do not feel a need to do so on the lives of innocent civilians, be they Palestinians, Lebanese, or otherwise.