Lebanon's agony 1: the view from inside Beirut

In a stinging editorial, the Beirut-based newspaper, the Daily Star, argues that "prolonging Lebanon's agony will only perpetuate Israel's vulnerability". The paper believes that the Israeli strategy of delaying a ceasefire until its army has inflicted "meaningful damage upon Hezbollah" is flawed because its "unimaginative military campaign has had the opposite effect. Support for Hezbollah - which was limited before the war - has reached record highs in Lebanon." It concludes: "The 'new Lebanon' could end up looking more like an Islamised Somalia than the free and democratic country that was recently held up as a shining example by the Bush administration." (Via The Daily Star > Editorial)