The following article is part of our ongoing effort to provide a variety of Christian perspectives on the Israel-Lebanon conflict.

Christian Arabs in Israel have mixed loyalties. As non-Muslim Arabs and citizens of Israel, many of us have adopted a cynical, seen-it-all spectator pose.

We imagined we would have the same attitude in this round of reprisals between Israel and Hezbollah. We had no dog in this fight, so we lacked total sympathy toward either.

On the one hand, Israel—the spoiled boy of the region supported by the great superpower—was provoked this time by a Muslim fundamentalist Lebanese militia that killed Israeli soldiers near the border and kidnapped others. Israel was furious and reacted with raids from air, land, and sea. Great destruction and hundreds of thousands of Lebanese became refugees. Israel overreacted.

On the other hand Hezbollah—led by the charismatic leader Hassan Nasrallah (ironically his name meaning "the victory of God")—has allegiance to lunatic Iranian leaders and had no right to attack and kidnap Israeli soldiers when, six years ago, Israel withdrew from Lebanon behind the international border.

Hezbollah (meaning "the party of God") reacted to Israel's sophisticated attacks by bombarding civilians in the northern parts of Israel using simple missiles.

The people of Nazareth thought they were immune. First, it is an Arab town in the lower Galilee region of Israel where one-half of its 70,000 residents are Muslim. Secondly it is a town located 30 miles away from the Israeli-Lebanese border—a distance that Hezbollah missiles have not been able to reach in the past.

We got the first warning on Monday night around 11:30. I was sitting in front of the ...