Lebanese workers unload humanitarian aid transported by a Cyprus ship through a Beirut port in Lebanon. (Payam Borazjani, Maan Images)

In just two weeks, Israel has killed more than 600 Lebanese, the vast majority civilians, and driven up to a million more from their homes. It has bombed milk factories, wheat silos, power plants, roads, bridges, the airport and nearly destroyed entire villages. As Lebanese refugees flee for safety and families search the rubble of their homes, we cannot forget that the same tragic scenes are playing out simultaneously in Gaza. Israel bombed Gaza's only power plant, denying almost a million people electricity and running water in the hot summer. Its indiscriminate bombing has killed scores of Palestinian civilians.

Yet, as Israel subjects the people of Lebanon and Gaza to collective punishment, US officials and pundits continue to blame the Lebanese and Palestinians, and champion Israel's right to "defend" itself.

Israel is wreaking this havoc ostensibly to secure the release of three soldiers. But history didn't begin when Hamas and Hizbullah raided military targets and captured soldiers. Israel routinely abducts Palestinian and Lebanese civilians.

Since 1967, Israel has detained roughly 600,000 Palestinians. Today it holds roughly 9,200 Palestinians, including more than 380 children and 130 women. Detainees are routinely subjected to physical abuse, including torture. Many are held for years without charge or trial and are denied access to lawyers or family visits.

Related stories FAQs on Hizbullah and Lebanon Stop now, immediately To impose an international force is to risk a civil war Aggression under false pretenses US should not abet violence in Lebanon

In 1997, Israel's High Court ruled it legitimate to take "bargaining chips" to be used in exchange for Israeli soldiers then held in Lebanon. Though the Court reversed its decision in 2000, Israel held Lebanese "bargaining chips" - some for as long as 11 years - until 2004 when Germany brokered a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hizbullah.

Rather than negotiate a similar deal when Hamas and Hizbullah took Israeli bargaining chips, Israel responded with excessive military force, overwhelmingly harming civilians and civilian infrastructure. Flexing their military muscles might feel good to Israel's generals. It might reclaim the sense of invincibility Israel lost when driven out of southern Lebanon. But it does not make them -- or anyone in the region - safer. It brings no one closer to the peace and stability that all in the region deserve.

Yet Israel and the US reject calls for an immediate ceasefire. Allowing the attacks to continue, leading to more death and destruction on both sides, will only further fuel resentment and radicalism in both populations. It will also further convince the Arab world that Israel and the US are acting together.

In his eulogy of Baruch Goldstein, the Jewish-American who killed 29 Palestinians praying in a mosque in 1994, Rabbi Yaacov Perrin said that "One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail." Most Israelis would reject that statement. Most Americans would condemn it as racism.

But what of the ongoing military siege of Lebanon and Gaza? What of the millions there who fear for their lives, who mourn their dead, who sit in the dark with no electricity, thirsty with no drinking water, hungry because food has spoiled and sick because pharmacies are empty and hospitals cannot function? Is the support for Israel's collective punishment of entire populations so different from the explicit racism of Rabbi Perrin?

President Bush should not ask Israel to "show restraint," giving a green light for this collective punishment to continue. He should demand an immediate ceasefire to save civilian lives on both sides. Israel received nearly $2.5 billion in US military aid this year, more than any other country. We should insist that our tax dollars not be used to fund death.

Margaret Zaknoen spent six years engaged in US-funded democracy-building projects in the Middle East. She is currently employed with the Institute for Middle East Understanding.