Disproportionate response?

Israel was recently attacked by the Lebanese Islamic movement, Hezbollah, on its northern border. Two of its soldiers were captured and innumerable rockets and missiles have been fired at Israeli towns and, yesterday, the city of Haifa. Israel responded by shelling suspected Hezbollah positions with long-range artillery and by targeting air strikes at Hezbollah offices in Beirut. This response has been deemed disproportionate by many in the international community and, while they have the right to their opinion, the supposedly objective media does not. Most television and radio reports in the UK have seen Israel's action as a response to the capture of its soldiers; if this was the whole story, such a response would indeed be disproportionate. However, the reality is that Hezbollah has been firing rockets across the border for months, if not years, and the kidnapping was simply the straw that broke the camel's back: Israel is not simply responding in this way in an effort to retrieve its soldiers, it is defending itself against a long-running campaign of guerilla warfare, and the sooner the world's media recognises that, the better.

Why, Zizou? Why?!

The retiring French football captain, Zinedine Zidane, was sent off in yesterday's World Cup Final for head-butting Italian defender Marco Materazzi. Zidane today said, through his agent, that words had been exchanged and that Materazzi had made (in paraphrase) "very serious" comments about the Frenchman. Zidane went on to win the Player of the Tournament award from FIFA, football's international governing body.

Surely Zidane should have refused the award on the grounds that violent conduct should not be condoned in this way? It's not that accepting the award would make him a role model for young players; he already carries that status, as shown in the many press conferences before the final. However, it would have been an excellent show of integrity - and an implicit apology - if Zidane had passed the award on to the second-placed player, Italian defender Fabio Cannavaro.

Having said that, Zidane has already ended his career in a mixture of disgrace and celebration, so to deny him an award which he surely deserves, if the red card is ignored, might seem rather unfair. I am very interested to hear people's opinions on this one...