"Does this apply to the offices of the government of Israel? Israeli courts, public schools, orphanages run by the government? How about racist Israeli ministers and MK’s?"

YES! Damnit. It applies to Americans as well, whose blood has been and inevitably will be spilt in the future for the stupid and horrific things our government has done around the world. It applied to the German public when they backed Hitler; it applied to the Japanese; it applied to both us and the Soviets as we lived under threat of one another's bombs, all over the insane, irrational desire to spread one's own ideology so as to have a bigger group of idiots who think they agree. It applies to everyone who partakes in second-hand genocide, from Israeli settlers to Lebanese villagers. From GWB right down to the most ignorant Fox News watcher.

Am I saying they should all be killed? Of course that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying they all bear responsibility, and at various times, they all reap their own various whirlwinds. Once a person takes a stance to actively support a political agenda involving the murder of other people, across whatever invisible geographic or social boundary, it's the same as inciting people to riot. It's the same as pulling out a gun: Be prepared to use it; be prepared to have it used against you. And that's essentially why this article was bunk; because bitching that two tats for one tit is bullshit. Lebanon and Hezbollah created their own disaster here just as Israel created its permanent state of disaster with the Palestinians. If there is any sympathy to be had for either of them, then there's sympathy to be had for both. And if not, then the article is doubly bunk, because not only is it entirely shot through with contradictions, but its basic premise that one party's civilians are more valuable than another's, or that one war crime is worse than another, is utterly meaningless.

Your mideast coverage is just a little to the left of Justin Raimondo or Nigel Parry's Electronicintifada. It's like a cool breeze for Sheik Yassin in hell. Maybe you get a black t-shirt and free latte with this but it's all become intolerable. And so a years' long relationship with Salon comes to an end.

Mr. Prothero,

I appreciate your response.

Firstly, I corrected my mistake concerning the name of the CNN reporter in a subsequent letter approx. 1 minute after posting. Unfortunately I don't have the luxury of an editor.

I am glad to hear that you make a great deal of effort to get to the source of the story rather than just relying on a dog and pony show. I too have spent considerable time in several countries of the Middle East and know how easy it is for Westerners to misread the local population.

However, you yourself admit that Hizbollah are not against using human shields. I am sure you know that most of the rockets they are using to target Israel are relatively small and can be moved and set up quickly. It is not particularly difficult to remove a rocket from a bunker, run it over to a couple of houses/an apartment building/a mosque or some other civilian location and fire it. Yes, the odds of them staying in that area for an extended period are slim. However, that area is now a legitimate target unfortunately.

It seems that your thesis is that Hizbollah militants do not spend the majority of their time around civilian areas for fear of discovery, which I find a little dubious based on the simple fact that they were in fact a tolerated presense in Lebanese politics and life and in fact had a semi official role as "the Resistance" (though they didn't resist Syrian occupation). Who exactly were they supposed to fear? The Lebanese Army? Who were these collaborators going to work with? The Syrians? They pay Hizbollah. The only ones who might have "collaborators" and be worthy of fear are the Israelis, and they had been on the other side of the border for 6 years, asking for the Lebanese army to patrol their own border. Not a worry unless you are planning an attack.

And even if I buy what you are saying, that they are that paranoid, not unfeasable, and they are definitely a class above Hamas, your title about the "myth" of hiding among civilians is misleading and inflammatory. Maybe not live day to day among civilians, but moving among them, firing from civilian areas and then escaping through other civilian areas certainly counts as hiding to me.

Salon,

A few years back you published an article, titled something like, "Living with the Taliban" which deeply offended me. It was an apologist letter for the Taliban, glossing over there treatment of women, other religions, etc. I gave Salon another try...but this is too much. Your article contradicts everything published by CNN, BBC, even Arab media.

Sorry, but the Hezb are, like the Taliban, BAD GUYS. They have brought this disaster on themselves, and on Lebanon. Your leftist slant on this group makes me sick, and I won't renew my membership.

Kimberly

It is a relief to me that at least one US based media outlet continues to provide access to actual on the ground reporting from the middle east to try and confront the widespread disinformation (and worse, propaganda) so prevalent in the majority of the US TV and print coverage about the punishment bombing of Lebabanon.

Sadly it seems that for some supporters of Israel even a small amount of coverage on the human toll of the Eretz Israel project is too much to bear.

Keep up the good work.

I'm disappointed to see the reporter responding here in the letters section. He should just focus on giving as accurate a report as possible of what's going on and not get caught up in the push and pull of the letter writers. The worse censorship is self-censorship, and I wouldn't want Prothero to be affected in his reporting.

I anticipate that reporters in a war zone will be affected in their reporting by the "fog of war," and I keep that in mind as I assimulate Prothero's observations into what I think I know about this conflict. I appreciate that Salon is giving us unideologically digested reports where all the contratdictions of the observations haven't been "tidied up." Because of that, Prothero's reporting rings truer and I found myself thinking about this story longer.

Unfortunately, the "fog of war" also makes war reporting an easy target for ideologues with a political axe to grind.

I especially appreciated his reporting in this article about how Israel has a tougher time gathering intelligence about Hizbollah than the Palestinian groups. It's readily apparent to me, even from this distance, that there is something about Hizbollah operationally that makes it more dangerous battlefield foe to Israel than Hamas.