From Israel's point of view, having an enemy military force operating freely just over the Lebanese border, firing rockets of increasing range and payload ever deeper into Israel, growing in strength and sophistication, was an untenable situation. What government could allow this to continue?
There was no reallistic chance of getting the Lebanese government to control Hezbollah. Nor was an international solution available. Making nice to the Palestinians would not help, because Hezbollah is not particularly interested in the Palestinian plight. Hezbollah is funded, armed, and motivated by Iran for its own purposes. Iran's goal is to create violence to distract the international community from its nuclear weapons program.
I therefore think that military action by Israel was inevitable, at some point. If it ignored one attack, others would follow. The longer they waited, the stronger Hezbollah would be. Hezbollah has already shown an impressive ability to knock out Israeli tanks. It is not some rag-tag band of oppressed Arab youth - it is a bona fide military force that has already become dangerously strong (from Israel's perspective).
In my opinion, Israel needed to, and still needs to, escalate the ground attack. Its leaders seem to have thought that they could neutralize Hezbollah with airstrikes, which is
AFAIK not working since Hezbollah has a deep tunnel network and operates in urban/civilian areas. As I said in another thread, I think Israel is making the mistake of holding back.
I know people have said Israel's actions were "disproportionate". This may be so, but I do not see why it matters. Almost by definition, a successful war must be disproportionate. There is no point in exchanging tit for tat like children playing checkers, or in trading one life for another until both sides collapse (ref French, German, and Russian armies in WWI).
Strange comments for a liberal, perhaps. But I think that when it comes to the Middle East, it has become really pointless to argue who is "in the ethical right" or has the "moral high ground". Both sides have done so much wrong to each other that there's no longer an aggressor and a victim. It has become a brutal situation of
realpolitik. What is a practical solution that leads to the absence of violence. Never mind a sincere peace, much less justice. If Hezbollah in Lebanon is neutralized, there will not be war on the Israel/Lebanon border.