ARIEL WINSTON
You make the crazy neo-con-phobics seem reasonable..................resist the temptation. Israel missed oportunities in a huge way on Monday. They had the chance to demonstrate (uh-gin!) that they had more patience and commitment than the Palestinians could muster. Israel validated the terrorists' methods by going after a target that could be considered political vs. military. This is no small matter. The definition of a terrorist is one who deliberately targets non-combatants for military action. It seems neither side "misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity."

The demostration of a greater purpose on the national stage would have done wonders for the ability of the Sharon government to demand a crackdown on Hamas/H'zbollah activities. The Shia-Syrian/Iran-centric Hezbollah is the greater long-term threat, BTW. More later.