Israel inflicted incredible damage to local civilian infrastructure in the 2006 Lebanon war - bombing bridges, roads, schools, medical clinics, power stations, the international airport, and created the largest ever oil spill in the Mediterranean Sea. 

What is the Lebanese Defense Minister doing to protect his country's civilians and national infrastructure?

Giving advice to Israel.

In yet another diplomatic bombshell revealed by Wikileak's publication earlier this week of over a quarter million US diplomatic wires, Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr  is revealed to have offered advice on how Israel could defeat Hezbollah in what many see as an inevitable repeat of the 2006 war.

"Israel cannot bomb bridges and infrastructure in the Christian areas," Murr was quoted as telling diplomats at the US in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on March 10, 2008. "The Christians were supporting Israel in 2006 until they started bombing their bridges."

The comments, sent to Washington in a diplomatic cable by the current US ambassador to Lebanon Michel Sison, then-chargé d'affaires at the embassy, imply that it would be perfectly acceptable to the Lebanese defense minister, a Greek Orthodox Christian, for Israel to bomb bridges and infrastructure in Muslim areas.

The minister is also quoted effectively inviting his arch enemy to attack his country so as to deal "a severe lesson" to a paramilitary group which the Lebanese Army, in cooperation with the United Nations, is tasked with disarming.

The minister even went so far as to ask the US to find out how long it would take Israel to "clean out" Hezbollah so that his brigades in the south could store enough supplies to sit tight and stay out of it. He also told the US that he had instructed the army commanders to keep out of the fighting "when Israel comes."

It is not the role of defense ministers to worry for their soldiers' safety alone. Lebanon's defense minister is charged with defending all civilians, both Christian and Muslim.

For Minister Murr to be inviting a foreign army to bomb civilian infrastructure in Muslim areas is far beyond the pale of reasonable behind-the-scenes diplomatic dealing.

Call on Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr to immediately resign over the comments, and on Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri to fire him, whichever comes first.