"No one can say with confidence how this crisis will play out. There are limits on what Israel can do in Lebanon. The Israelis will not be pulled deeper into Lebanon and its villages and urban alleyways, and Israel can't be expected to disarm Hezbollah or to find its missiles in Lebanon's crannies. Finding the political way out, and working out a decent security arrangement on the border, will require a serious international effort and active American diplomacy. International peacekeeping forces have had a bad name, and they often deserve it. But they may be inevitable on Lebanon's border with Israel; they may be needed to buy time for the Lebanese government to come into full sovereignty over its soil," - Fouad Ajami in the Wall Street Journal today.
Surely a serious international force is preferable to another Israeli occupation - for Israel and the rest of the region. Lebanon's nascent democracy requires defense as well - from Iran and Syria and Hezbollah, and the blowback from Israeli self-defense.