The sound that will be missing is that of opposing voices seeking compromise and a way forward through reasoned discussion; instead, gunfire barks out. No mother or father wants to fear for a child; no one wants destruction to rain down from above on what is called home, yet children will die, and homes will be destroyed.

As military leaders carve up Gaza and Lebanon into chessboards for strategy and tactics, nobody seems to worry about the collateral damage.

Collateral damage is defined as unintended damage sustained during a military campaign, and the people of this region are discovering that it means a son's leg, a daughter's arm or a spouse's life, a home or a friend.

When you put it in those terms, it is clear that it should be unacceptable in a civilized world. The great nations of the world should be stepping up - and in, if need be - to put a halt to this brutal carnage. To do otherwise is to declare Gaza and Lebanon expendable and to declare their peoples unworthy of civility in this so-called "civilized" world.

I hear voices from the West calling for reform and democracy, but those voices seem strangely silent now that mothers' weeping is drowned out by what seems to be a widening conflict. Does dropping thousands of fliers on a neighborhood suggesting that the residents leave before the bombs start dropping on their homes make it all right? What bizarre stretches of reason could justify such a thing? The populaces of Palestine and Lebanon should be thrust into bitter war because three soldiers are captured? Where are all those voices so quick to call for reason, tolerance and understanding in this region. It is a bitter irony that some of those voices are the same ones who are supplying the equipment, supposedly given for defense, that are now on the offensive.

I received a message from Europe from a Jewish man apologizing for Israel's apparent plunge into madness, but the European leaders dawdle while people are dying.

"No one now will dare question Israeli actions," said a young journalism student from Columbia University. "I am half-Jewish, but I am a seeker of the truth." Yet the Americans are willing to stand on the sidelines instead of intervening to stop this.

The American people are among the world's finest. They embrace their cherished tenets of "liberty and justice for all," but the media and a powerful Israeli lobby continue to mislead them on the nature of this conflict.

The American Jewish Committee's David Harris worked feverishly to garner support for Israel. "The way they were working, one would think that the United States itself was under attack," said a Congressional staff member who demanded anonymity. Not to be outdone, a large segment of the American media with ideological connections to Israel embarked on a campaign of vilification and obscuring of the facts. One CBS broadcaster went as far as to inquire "why fundamentalists in Gaza and Lebanon chose to provoke this war makes no sense."

The result is an American public being misled as to the true nature of this unimaginable setback for the Middle East. That is evidenced by some of the hate mail we are now receiving.

One letter from Miami promised to annihilate us; somebody else wants to put us in incinerators. Another called for an assassination campaign. Others kept on repeating the old mantra about Syria and Iran. It seems that every American institution is now being utilized by the pro-Israeli lobby.

"Well, the more shrill your voice becomes in favor of Israel, the higher profile you gain in media circles here," said a retired American editor. "I have the longer interest of America at heart, and I am totally upset with what I say about a minority trying to drag us into a swamp and mire us there."

He does not speak strictly about the long-range interests of America; he is also speaking about the long-range interests of all of us to find lasting peace between nations and an end to the rumble of guns. We should be building a 21st century economic future instead of reliving the past.

The spineless behavior of the Europeans and others has made many wonder what hold these people have that terrifies them and prevents them from speaking the truth.

It was an Israeli of conscience who exposed Facility 1391 - Israel's torture prison. It houses Lebanese abducted by Israelis, scores of Palestinians - men, women and even children - and makes the Soviet gulags seem like picnic spots.

An Israeli MP, Zahava Gal-on, described Facility 1391 as "one of the signs of totalitarian regimes and of the Third World."

"I don't think such an institution should exist in a democracy," said Ami Ayalar, a former head of the Shin Bet, Israel's intelligence service.

Although we value his words, the world can rightfully ask what democracy imprisons a people, blows to smithereens hundreds of others while using the latest weaponry and gadgetry - freely supplied by a superpower?

To have peace, the world should see that the real problem is occupation and the nonimplementation of UN Resolutions No. 242 and No. 338, both of which are gathering dust. The same nation that so often seeks our support on its initiatives stands as a roadblock to those UN resolutions. The only way real peace will come is when the UN seriously implements these programs.

It is ironic that in a world supposedly moving forward with a matrix of globalized, interconnected economies that for half a century the Palestinian issue has been allowed to fester like a bleeding sore; what is more ironic is that now Israel is plunging Lebanon back into the same pit of hell in which it has sought to leave the Palestinians. Are these the acts of a civilized people in a civilized world?

I don't think so.