the legacy of the israel/lebanon conflict

From this article in today's Age:

The greater legacy is the human one. Every bomb dropped by Israel will have broken hundreds of Lebanese hearts. Some will have lost loved ones; others will have seen bridges, streets and houses that were painstakingly restored after decades of war smashed into the ground.

Those who witnessed it will not forget it, and they will carry a bitterness towards Israel for the rest of their lives, passing it on to their children. The bereaved families of Israeli civilians will feel the same way about their enemy.

From all the rational, strategic calculations, this is the factor that is so often missing: the hatred sown in the human heart. Both sides have ensured this dreadful conflict spreads, not just across borders - but down the generations.

In a situation like this engaging nonviolence looks like trying to hold back the incoming tide, but as this article suggests, it is the only hope of a world locked into the cycle of revenge. Breaking that cycle is the only way to stop the carnage; yet in what seems to me to be the ultimate in irrationality, no-one is willing to take the first step. How people can't see that is beyond me, but then, so is the situation.