But neither Israel nor the USA were disinterested parties with respect to the conflicts in Lebanon. They were more interested in strategic gains than saving lives.

The point of a joint French-German intervention, to spell it out, would have been that jointly they would neutralise any accusation of bias in favour of one side or the other, insofar as they were seen, in the fevered imaginations of the belligerents, as natural allies of one or the other.

No guarantee of success, obviously. But a moral obligation to try.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}