With friends like these . . .

I haven't written about the war in Lebanon. Clearly, there is plenty of blame to go around. There are a couple of points to make, though:

First, if you don't want to look as though we've picked sides simply because we like Israelis and we don't like Muslims, one of the things that we seem to rely on is the claim that Hezbollah is specifically targeting civilians and Israel is not. The civilized Israelis are way better than the brutal Hezbollahs, and until Hezbollah learns how to act like civilized people they have no claim to be treated like them.

So when the Isareli ambassador to the United States was questioned recently, one of the things he was asked about was cluster bombs. Here's the exchange:

SAM HUSSEINI: Are you using cluster bombs in Lebanon?

DANIEL AYALON: No, we are not. We're not using anything which is not approved by the UN conventions and charters.

Good, right? We don't want people to use cluster bombs, because they target civilians, they lie around on the ground and blow up when little kids pick them up, and stuff like that.

The only problem is that the Israeli ambassador was lying.

Here's the truth: U.S. State Department investigates whether Israel broke agreements

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- Homes, gardens and highways across south Lebanon are littered with unexploded cluster bombs dropped by Israel, the U.N. said Friday, and the U.S. State Department has reportedly launched an investigation.

"There are about 285 cluster bomb locations across south Lebanon, and our teams are still doing surveys and adding new locations every day," said Dalya Farran, spokeswoman for the U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center, which has an office in the southern port city of Tyre.

"We find about 30 new locations per day," she said.

So remind me why we think Israel is so much better than Hezbollah?

Second, and this isn't Israel vs. Hezbollah, but Israel vs. Iran or North Korea.

We don't like Iran or North Korea, and one of the worst things about them is that they have, or want, nuclear weapons. I thnk most readers agree that nuclear weapons are bad, and the fewer countries that have them, the better.

So do we care that Israel has them?

SAM HUSSEINI: Why does Israel refuse to acknowledge its possession of nuclear weapons? And Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli whistleblower, has suggested a tradeoff, where you have a nuclear-free Middle East -- [inaudible]

DANIEL AYALON: Sir, you are talking and --

SAM HUSSEINI: -- Israelis nuclear weapons. Isn't Israel’s nuclear possession provocative in the region?

DANIEL AYALON: Who says we have nuclear possession? Have we ever said that?

Isn't it obvious that Iran wants them for the same reason that Israel has them: because it's in their interests to have them?