International reactions to the 2006 Lebanon War 39% disapproved, and 16% were not sure. When asked to think about the events of the past week in the Middle East, 54% of Americans answered that their sympathies are more with Israel, 11% answered more with Arab nations, 11% both, 11% neither, and 13% not sure. In August 2006, University of Chicago political scientist John Mearsheimer accused Israel of using the kidnapping of its soldiers by Hezbollah as an excuse to attack Lebanon and start the 2006 Lebanon War. Mearsheimer stated that "Israel had been planning to strike at Hezbollah for months. Key Israelis had briefed the administration about
Special Tribunal for Lebanon on February 28, 2009. The Tribunal was established to "try all those who are found responsible for the [February 14th, 2005] terrorist crime which killed the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and others." Its jurisdiction could be extended beyond that event to other attacks in Lebanon between October 1, 2004 and December 12, 2005, if there was sufficient evidence showing they were connected and of a similar nature and gravity to the February 14th attack. Human Rights Watch had argued that the tribunal should have been given jurisdiction over 14 other attacks perpetrated in Lebanon since 1 October 2004.