US, UK and Israel face the condemnation of the world.
The cost in terms of human grief is incalculable.
The cost in terms of damage to infrastructure runs into billions. It is also almost impossible to look at some of the places that Israel has chosen to attack and to see how attacking them has aided either the release of the three soldiers or the destruction of Hizbullah. Indeed, the term wanton destruction comes to mind. Wanton destruction is, of course, a war crime.
How did the destruction of any of the following aid in the release of Gilad Shalit and the others, or help to destroy Hizbullah?
Israel has attacked 17 fuel stores, 4 gas stores, she has bombed 12 petrol stations, the milk plant in the Bekaa valley, the water treatment plant in Dair al-Zahrani, she has blown up 38 main roads and destroyed 55 bridges. She has also, rather bizarrely, been attacking the Lebanese army, the very people that she one day hopes will police southern Lebanon and help to drive Hizbullah from her borders.
It is very hard, if not impossible, to look at Israel's actions and to discern a plan. It looks like wanton destruction.
To be fair to Israel, the enemy it faces is a very fluid and versatile one, able to dismantle and recreate it's structure at will. And therein lies the problem. Israel is engaging as if she is fighting a traditional army, which she is not.
And, despite Israeli claims that she has destroyed half of Hizbullah's military capability, is there anyone outside of Tel Aviv who takes that claim remotely seriously?
Against this background it was always going to be impossible for Tony Blair, who is essentially adopting the Republican party line on this, to hold the Labour Party together.
Yesterday, the cracks in the party began to show, especially after Kofi Annan called for a ceasefire and, even the Tory Party, have condemned the Israeli actions as disproportionate.
Kim Howells, a junior minister at the Foreign Office - due to travel to the region today - was more openly critical of the Israelis, as well as Hizbullah, reflecting the mood among many British diplomats and most Labour MPs.Mr Howells revealed the Foreign Office "had repeatedly urged Israel to act proportionately, to conform with international law and to avoid the appalling civilian deaths and suffering we are witnessing on our television screens".
He added that Louise Arbour, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, had to be taken very seriously when she said this week that the attacks on both sides could be war crimes under international law.
In the Commons, many Labour MPs were furious that the shadow foreign secretary, William Hague, was prepared to be tougher in his warning to Israel than Mrs Beckett. "I think we can say that elements of the Israeli response are disproportionate, including attacks on Lebanese army units, the loss of civilian life and essential infrastructure and such enormous damage to the capacity of the Lebanese government, [which] does damage the Israeli cause in the long term," he told MPs.
The former international development secretary, Clare Short, described the British policy as "so unbalanced, morally wrong and counter-productive and disrespectful of international law".
The former Labour Foreign Office minister Chris Mullin asked Mrs Beckett if it was not "a tiny bit shameful that we can find nothing stronger than the word 'regret' to describe the slaughter and misery and mayhem that Israel has unleashed on a fragile country like Lebanon".
The Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, said: "The prime minister's uncritical acceptance of the Bush administration is not only wrong but deeply damaging to Britain's international reputation."
It says something when even the normally circumspect Kofi Annan has called for an end to a war that has led to the "collective punishment of the Lebanese people."Collective punishment is a war crime.
Don't underestimate the significance of that. We now have the secretary general of the United Nations saying that Israel is committing war crimes.
How long can the US and UK continue to hold this immoral line whilst the rest of the world condemns Israel's actions? Actions that are punishing collectively the people of Lebanon whilst achieving no discernible military objective?
I was drawn to the statement of one American citizen, Mohammed Shami, who said:
"I feel embarrassed to be an American. They have given Israel the green light to destroy Lebanon. What they are doing is wrong; it is immoral."Likewise, as a citizen of the UK, I would like to state that most British people are not like Tony Blair. We can see when something is wrong and we can, unlike our leaders, condemn it as so. And what Israel is currently doing is simply wrong.
"My father is of Lebanese birth and my mother is American", said Mr Shami, a 21-year-old student from Michigan. " I am very proud of my mother and the American people. All I can say is that most American people are not like Condoleezza Rice, they are not like George Bush; they have a sense of decency."
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