I was in Auschwitz yesterday & there was a group of Jewish teenagers (17-18 yrs old, I'd guess) in white and blue dress, many with the flag of Israel draped over their shoulders.

The incident has revealed flaws in the government's control over the army: Peretz learned of it only after it was reported by the German media last weekend, following which he asked the Israel Defense Forces for an explanation. Only then did he discover that the air force had scrambled war planes toward a German helicopter. It was later revealed that, in another incident, planes on a training flight had released flares and the Germans mistakenly thought they were being fired on.

The Germans may have weighed and gamed various scenarios and decided, rationally, that a confrontation was unlikely or could be avoided by quickly pulling out. And if they could pull off a succesful mission, it would be a big boost for the country's international standing...

But this is myopic. Think of one of these kids sitting in an F-16 three years later. Psychology is not going to play into this? Think again.

I don't think it was wise for the Germans to send troops to Lebanon. I hope I'll be proven wrong.