Who is Guilty of Killing Civilians, Israel or Hezbollah?

From day one of the recent war, Israeli missiles have been killing more civilians than Hezbollah's, and there's no doubt about it. But, just because Hezbollah’s attacks got less victims does not mean they are morally on a higher ground. In fact it is Hezbollah which has been firing much more rockets at Israeli civilians than the number of missiles Israel was firing.

Do the rules of engagement not apply to Hezbollah at all? Hezbollah rockets fired at Israel do not even make a pretence of targeting anyone else but civilians. The Hezbollah has been doing this for some time, as its rockets are too inaccurate to do anything else.

“Discussions around the world about the conflict have taken on an abstract air — even that of a sporting battle in which it has become de rigeur to cheer the underdog for the simple reason that it is the underdog. As in all other conflicts, distinction between who is wrong and who is more wrong blurs as violence continues...” (HT Delhi Editorial on August 9, 2006)

None of us can condone Israeli policy of targeting civilians, nor am I. But its wrong to expect a morally right/correct response from Israelis alone. All that Israelis were doing, is to ‘get down to the level of their enemies’ and not worse. Israelis are NOT MORE bothered than Hezbollah (or only as much bothered as Hezbollah is) regarding civilian casualties. On what basis can one tell Israelis that do not do more damage/civilian casualties than what Hezbollah does. As if Hezbollah is the scale/standard to measure Israeli retaliation.

Hence we must not fault Israelis alone, especially when they are the ones at the receiving end. One must not expect Israelis alone to display a higher degree of morality than the Hezbollah, given the fact that they are usually the ones targeted first. Israel is not a willing — or for that matter, the only — sinner.

Does Victim-hood gives the outfit the moral high ground of retaliation... Hezbollah, backed by sensibilities championing the ‘underdog’, cannot be made exempt from the immorality of killing civilians- on either side of the border; on one side targeting them, on the other side using them as shields.