?

So the strategy is pretty clear. The US and Israel are talking and the latter have been given room to get it done. The killing of civilians is considered an unfortunate side effect and once the clearing out of the civilian population is complete, the ground attack can begin in earnest. Mass evacuations are currently ongoing and the leaflet drops are expected to clear out the areas they plan to bomb with the understanding that the occupants have been given the appropriate notice to leave.

Those who remain are expected to be Hezbollah. With their superior fire power Israel believes it can finally get Hezbollah fighters once they're drawn out and can no longer use civilians as a human shield. Lets hope it doesn't last long.

And now for some jokes. (Secular deity) knows that we need them.

I got the first one from a comment left somewhere by an Israeli on a Lebanese blog:

In Israel, we have a joke about a guy walking on the beach and coming across a curious looking bottle. He picks it up, rubs some sand off it and (not surprisingly) a genie appears. "Let me go and I will grant you any wish!". The guy says, "It would be cool to have a highway from here to NYC". The Genie goes "common, get real". "OK" says the guy, "We have a little dispute here in the ME between us and the Pals. Let me explain... (bla bla bla). In short I want peace". The genie takes a minute and goes: "So, how many lanes do you want on that highway?"

The second came from Gareth. Thanks Gareth, I hope you don’t mind.

Jordanian intelligence officer: “For the Islamic fundamentalists, democratic reform is like toilet paper,” he said. “You use it once and then you throw it away.”