Correct on both accounts, I would guess, but his point about "sowing the seeds of hatred" cuts to the heart of the matter and is quite valid. Where are the opportunities to short circuit or diminish the cycles of hate and prejudice, particulary in a part of the world criss-crossed by cultures at odds over one another?

Too strident a response will only create more Hezbollah recruits--at what point do the diminishing returns kick in? What would the world be like today wihout the Serb who shot Archduke Ferdinand, without the Treaty of Vienna, without Hitler, and without a Holocaust?

Years ago in NYC, I shared a loft with a couple, Michael and Zena. He was a Jew from NY, she was Lebanese. I believe they got married. There is hope.

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