This is a demonstration that Israel is prepared to fight a two or three front war. They are serving notice to Hamas, Hizbulah and Syria
Isreal is sending a message that this isn't 1967 anymore.
Over the past 30 years, Israel has built up a modern defensive and offensive military that is so far above anything Syria, Jordan, Egpyt, or Iran can throw at them, its not even something to argue about.
As if the middle-east didn't get a wake up call with how quickly the US took out Afganistan and Iraq. They were, along with the all the idiots in europe and the MSM in complete jaw dropping awe at how quickly the US took Baghdad.
Israel's army is smaller than the US, but has the same training, weapons technology, and experience to smash Lebannon, Syria, and even Iran if they wanted too.
I mean look at what has gone on in the war soo far. Hezbollah's main weapons consist of mainly rockets based on WW2 technology! They have no air force. No way of tracking where Israeli artillary fire is coming from. Their strategy is too every day blindly fire rockets into Israel hoping some of them actually land in a population center. I'm sure once the ground campaign starts, it will get more dirty, but in the end, Israel will still have such a huge advantage in firepower and technology, its going to be so loopsided, its going to be another huge embarrasment to the muslim world, and all they are going to have is more talk the talk, but no walk the walk.
If Chirac thinks this is a "Disproportionate" amount of force being used right now, that POS hasn't seen nothing yet. Israel is just in step one right now. THey are simply softening up the enemy ground installations and cutting off their supply and communication channels, before the real assault begins.