Who started it? Arabs can't be faulted for starting conflict with Israel, when the very occupation of Palestine in 1948 was an unprovoked act of aggression against all Arabs. And then came all the Arab-Israeli wars, all of which, except 1973, unfortunately were initiated by Israel. And the argument of "not providing a pretext for Israel" is the most dumb argument I ever hear--and it is being parroted by the silly right-wing Lebanonese advocates as of late. Providing pretexts? For Israel? Israel looks for pretexts? A state that is specialized in unprovoked acts of aggression? Israel is willing to find a pretext in a car accident in the Sudan for a bombing campaign in Gaza, for potato's sake. There has never been any logic or sound international legal arguments in Israel's wars and invasions. Remember 1967? Nasser was advised by the Americans and by the Russians to not fire the first shots. Well, he was dumb enough to listen. Israel fired the first shots, and gained the momentum and initiative. Had Nasser initiated hostilities against Israel back in 1967--which he should have, the performance of Arab armies would not, could not, have been as abysmal. And if you remember, as mentioned in a footnote in the full version of William Quandt's Peace Process, the Israeli government in the first day of the 1967 War first, through Abba Eban, lied to the US government, and falsely claimed that Egypt fired the first shots. So in the course of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and given the on-going occupation of Arab lands, the argument of don't-provide-Israel-with-a-pretext is an argument that merely serves the interests of Israeli occupation and aggression. So obviously, unless you have been asleep, Israel had a massive pre-meditated plan of war and aggression against Lebanon. The San Francisco Chronicle printed an article about that (I posted it). So of course Israel wants to always be the side that initiates conflict and hostilities, because that gives it the upper hand. So of course it would be dumb to give Israel the upper hand, unless you agree with the foolish doctrine of the Ba`thist tyrant, Hafidh Al-Asad who chanted the slogan: "We decide the time and place of the battle." (I always understood the time factor (never, he meant), but what did he mean by the "place of the battle." Was the Hamah massacre a "place of the battle"? Does the Syrian regime not know where the Golan Heights are on the map? Does it need me to point them out? )