Dominating the TV news this morning is the incident at Qana in Lebanon. Israeli airstrikes have killed over 50 people, many of them children, in that village which the Israelis believe was the launching spot for over 150 rockets. I have no reason to doubt the Israeli contention that Hezbollah was using that town for its launches. Clearly, there is an abundance of evidence to indicate that Hezbollah is using civilians as a shield for their operations. The Israelis can protest all they like and provide the world with all the evidence they can find, which they are doing (including a new video that purports to show Hezbollah rockets being fired from behind an apartment building in Qana). It does not matter. World opinion will be shaped by the pictures of dead children being exhumed from the rubble. Already, Kofi Annan has called an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council, at which time he once again called for an immediate cease-fire. Politically speaking, the whole world is lining up against Israel, except, of course, for the United States. How long can the Bush Administration hold out against the rising tide of world opinion? How long before they must step into line and call on the Israelis to stop fighting?

What is so exasperating for me is, like David Warren, I cannot figure out what the Israelis are doing.

One moment Prime Minister Olmert says Israel is prepared for a battle to the death, the next he starts talking about creating a border security zone only two kilometres wide -- which would be as if the Germans attacked the Maginot line, but not France.

There is speculation, still, that the Israelis are pulling a huge ruse -- exaggerating their difficulties to build Hezbollah's false confidence, before delivering the crushing blow. I can't believe this. The Israeli political class consists almost entirely of big-mouths, and you can't keep a secret among them.

Moreover, I hear alarming reports to suggest internal confusion; and worse, that Ehud Olmert is out of his depth -- thinking politically when his problem is military.

If Warren is right, and I believe he is, then the Israeli government is fumbling away perhaps its only chance to defeat Hezbollah. As I have written repeatedly since this crisis began, if Hezbollah remains intact with weapons in hand then they have won. That will mean money, prestige, recruits, and greater political power inside Lebanon.

The Israelis must invade Lebanon in great force and drive the Hezbollah fighters back at least to the Litani river and, perhaps, even beyond. Only when they have been driven back will the rain of rockets into northern Israel cease, and only then can the Israeli government agree to a cease fire and the introduction of an international force into southern Lebanon that can help the Lebanese Army prevent Hezbollah from infiltrating back into the region. The Israelis must stand before the world as the victors, even if the whole world hates them for it. Better to be a reviled winner, than a despised loser.