IS IT WAR?

Olmert: Hizballah Attack an "Act of War" by Lebanon - Yaakov Katz and Herb Keinon (Jerusalem Post)
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared the attack on Israel's border Wednesday an "act of war" and not terror. Olmert called it an unprovoked assault by a sovereign nation and held Lebanon, where Hizballah has a minister in the government, fully responsible.

Israel strikes come within 10 miles of Beruit: Prime minister says assaults over captured prisoners will be ‘very painful’ (MSNBC)
MARJAYOUN, Lebanon - In escalating violence over capture of two of its soldiers Israeli warplanes attacked a Palestinian guerrilla base 10 miles south of Beirut, their closest raid yet to the Lebanese capital.

Lebanese security officials confirmed the strike. Hezbollah militants crossed into Israel on Wednesday and captured two Israeli soldiers. Israel responded in southern Lebanon with warplanes, tanks and gunboats, and said seven of its soldiers had been killed in the violence.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the soldiers’ capture “an act of war,” and his Cabinet prepared to approve more military action in Lebanon — a second front in the fight against Islamic militants by Israel, which already is waging an operation to free a captured soldier in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, Israel began calling up reserve troops on Wednesday, signaling a large-scale campaign to retrieve the two soldiers, Israel’s Channel 10 television said. The report added that a reserve infantry division had been mobilized and was expected to be sent to Israel's northern border with Lebanon.

The Israeli army said three soldiers were killed in the initial Lebanon raid, and four others were killed when their tank went over a land mine in southern Lebanon. Olmert said he held the Lebanese government responsible for the two soldiers’ safety, vowing that the Israeli response “will be restrained, but very, very, very painful.”

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said he will not release the captives except as part of a prisoner swap. He said the two soldiers were “in a safe and very far place.”

“No military operation will return them,” he told a news conference in Beirut. “The prisoners will not be returned except through one way: indirect negotiations and a trade.”

Israeli jets struck deep into southern Lebanon, blasting bridges and Hezbollah positions and killing two civilians, the Lebanese officials said. The Israeli military planned to call up thousands of reservists, and residents of Israeli towns on the border with Lebanon were ordered to seek cover in underground bomb shelters....

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Hezbollah action went against the interest of the Lebanese people, and that Syria has a “special responsibility” to resolve the crisis. “All sides must act with restraint to resolve this incident peacefully and to protect innocent life and civilian infrastructure,” she said ahead of meetings in Paris.

The White House, which also condemned the attacks, blamed Syria and Iran for the attacks. “We call for immediate and unconditional release of the two soldiers,” said Frederick Jones, spokesman with the White House National Security Council. “We also hold Syria and Iran, which directly support Hizbollah, responsible for this attack and for the ensuing violence.”