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.