It Takes a Village . . . Qana

Yes, we all know that it takes a village to raise a child. It also took a village -- the southern Lebanese village of Qana -- to get the United States to act to stop the carnage in the Middle East.

The news of the killing of 57 civilians -- 34 of them children -- in a single bombing raid on Qana finally got the United States to abandon its "clean house" policy and to an insistence that Israel proclaim a 48-hour halt in air attacks on Lebanon. It is worth noting that a direct Israeli attack on a U.N. observation post earlier in the week had not achieved such a change.

An emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council condemned the attack in the strongest terms and insisted that the parties to the conflict allow free access for humanitarian aid. The Security Council also continued its call for an immediate ceasefire.

Unfortunately, it may take more than a village to secure a real ceasefire. In announcing the cessation of bombing, Israeli officials expressed determination to continue their offensive until the terror threat to Israel is extinguished. There is certainly a threat to Israel present in Southern Lebanon. Only a few short years ago, Israel withdrew from Southern Lebanon after a disastrously unsuccessful attempt to remove that threat by military means. It is also true that the tactics of Hezbollah make it very difficult to distinguish its fighters from the civilian population. That said, the threat to Israel only intensifies every time Israel uses collective punishment of a civilian population to try to eliminate its enemies.

And it is not just the Israeli policy that needs to be questioned. The current bombing has also left U.S. policy in the region in tatters.

New communications technologies have offered some Lebanese the opportunity to raise their own voices during this conflict. Surely we must hear these voices, too, if we wish to understand what it means to stand for human rights during such a conflict.