"The purely bilateral issues are few, and clear: Israel wants its two captured soldiers returned alive, and not to be attacked by Hezbollah rockets from southern Lebanon. Lebanon and Hezbollah want Israel to stop bombing Lebanese targets, leave the Shebaa Farms area it still occupies, return the few Lebanese prisoners it holds, and stop menacing Lebanon and intruding on its sovereignty by over-flights, sonic booms and occasional attacks."

This is what it is really all about. Israel knew Hezbollah was planning a raid, but failed to adequately prepare for it, possibly due to the distraction in Gaza. Hezbollah has done this numerous times before, usually resulting in a limited exchange of prisoners for hostages or even the bodies of Israeli soldiers. Israel has bombed and kidnapped Hezbollah to secure an advantage toward stopping rocket attacks and a peace settlement. This has gone on on a low level since Israel withdrew from Lebanon.

It is no surprise that Hezbollah was surprised by Israel's response, and equally no surprise, that in light of this administrations policies, it is not Iran or Syria pulling the strings here, but the US. I don't agree, but that's because this administration has a deer in the headlights appearance to it. Still, we haven't heard from Cheney in awhile and we now how he gets when he hasn't shot anyone recently.

The solution is both obvious and doable to any diplomat who has observed the situation. Return all prisoners and agree to a tacit truce and respect for the age old established borders. Leave Hezbollah to deal with Lebanon and leave Israel to deal with Palestine. This has already been the standard norm first with Egypt, then Jordan, then Syria. Egypt and Jordan converted a tacit peace to a formal peace. Lebanon will follow suit next, most likely with resolution of the Palestinian issue, but not necessarily. Syria will upon return of all or part of the Golan and a solution to its Palestinian refugee issue.

Sadly, this administration is still governed in part by the neocon "only in the cauldron of fire will true democracy take root" (Yeah that worked out perfectly in France, Russia, Cambodia and now in Congo, Somalia, Columbia and any other country where diplomacy is held by "other means.") and Dubya's "Armageddon here we come!" base.

Oddly, the more I watch this administration do its "good" works the less I believe in a higher power.

Isn't it time for all states and religions to apologize and accept that Jews are not evil or the cause of all suffering? Isn't it time all states and all religions have the balls to once and for all accept their own responsibility for the world's misery? This isn't just about the Holocaust, or just about the Nazi's, but the evil that dwells in all of us when we denigrate, segregate and subjugate another only to burn with envy at when some of them succeed against all odds.

Isn't it time to admit, our adulation of our own idols led us down a path of the suffering of others, all because we were greedy and jealous and now it is time to stop.

All the mea culpas in the world uttered by Mel Gibson will not end this horrible debate. Mel will suffer social exile, but those that harbor the same feelings will continue in their quiet acquiescence of the acts of people like him.

We scream long and loud that the world must answer to and accept global warming before our world falls into peril. Isn't it time we scream equally loud and long that we must accept that Jews are not the evil of the world, but one of us, before we see this same world drown in a horrible violence and destruction, even before the seas begin to rise?

Only then, can we address the difference between the racist hatred of those who say "who cares if you win or lose as long as you kill Jews" and honest debate about the political actions of an independent state. Iran's president is an anti-semite of Mel's ilk, but we will never bring him to bear for ranting to some California police cop. Until, this world, its nations and its religions, condemns anti-semitism and the suffering of the Jewish people, we will never seperate the hatred of a race from the condemnation of a nation, perhaps filled with centuries of persecution and venom and fear, for it's own violent and racist acts.

You know, its the little things that make baseball so much fun. Like a Red Sox Indians game that is in it's eight inning and well out of reach of the Sox; six to one, when the announcers, running out of nice ways of saying, this game is over, direct their gaze and cameras to some antics in the stands or field. In this case it was a crow perching himself on second base, while taking occasional leadoffs to steal third.

I'm an Indians fan, but I would have shut this game off but for that bird. Yeah, Sabbathia could get pulled and the bullpen is well designed for giving up six or seven runs, well now four runs, it is the ninth. Still, it was too fascinating watching that bird; like the kissing bandit or the casino.com stripper, the bird was captivating. Most of all I kept hoping for the pitcher to toss a pick off pitch to second base as the tag was applied with a sickening thud, or better yet, Coco Crisp to deliver a line drive that would reduce the sorry bird to a cloud of feathers.

Sick? Maybe, but its days like that in the Seventies that made me a baseball fan.