A speaker at a national conference Uptown for Catholic peace and justice activists blamed U.S. policy and Israel for the deadly fighting in Lebanon, but also excoriated Hezbollah and warned against anti-Semitism in some quarters of the peace movement.

While Israel isn't bombing Lebanon "in order to kill civilians, it is with absolute disregard for civilians," Phyllis Bennis, a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., told a gathering of Pax Christi USA yesterday. The conference drew 450 people from across the country to Duquesne University this weekend.

Its exhibit hall was filled with colorful fair-trade clothing from impoverished nations. T-shirts sported anti-war quotes from Pope John Paul II or linked opposition to abortion to opposition to the death penalty. Workshop topics ranged from the Middle East conflict to immigration to mountaintop-mining practices in Appalachia. A Japanese bishop appealed for help to stop a U.S.-backed movement to repeal the pacifist clause in Japan's constitution.

Ms. Bennis had been slated to speak on the war in Iraq, but she revised her talk to address Israel, Lebanon and Gaza. She called for an immediate ceasefire and for all parties to then work out a long-term peace agreement.

She called Hezbollah's actions in crossing the border into Israel and capturing two Israeli soldiers a "stupid" and illegal miscalculation, but said it did not violate the Geneva Convention because the targets were military.

"The clash began as a border incursion. Border incursions happen all the time, all over the world. Israel decided that they wanted to make it a war," she said.

But she warned against slipping from opposition to Israeli policy to "a kind of anti-Semitism, which I think we have to be very wary of and vigilant in identifying."

She had no kind words for Hezbollah or Hamas.

"I don't like their social program. They are misogynistic and homophobic ... I don't like the fact that they are convincing others in the region that it may be possible to challenge Israeli occupation militarily, when that will be a recipe for colossal failure," she said.

The one remnant of her planned Iraq talk was a dissection of the slogan, "We broke it, we have to fix it," as a rationale for keeping U.S. troops there. The "bull in the china shop" is a more apt analogy, she said.

"You don't leave the bull in the china shop and ask the bull to fix more things. You get the bull out of the china shop and write a check to fix the damage."

The theme of the conference was the 20th anniversary of the U.S. Catholic bishops' pastoral letter "Economic Justice for All." Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala of Los Angeles, the bishop-president of Pax Christi USA, gave a keynote assessment of the "unfinished agenda" of that letter.

The projected U.S. budget for 2007 allots 28 percent to the military compared to 4 percent for education, 2 percent for housing and one-third of 1 percent for job training.

That budget "certainly raises moral questions in light of poverty in the U.S.A. and the Christian identity claimed by the leadership of our country," he said.

In a workshop on ecology, the Rev. John Rausch, coordinator of the Peace and Justice Office of the Catholic Diocese of Lexington, Ky., proposed spiritual responses to mountaintop removal. He described it as "strip mining on steroids," arguing that the practice saves coal companies very little money compared to less damaging mining methods.

He called for Americans to alleviate the energy crisis through lifestyle changes. These included sharing and bartering rather than buying household equipment, and by keeping the Sabbath.

"On the seventh day God looked at the world and said it was good. He didn't say it was useful," he said. "The Sabbath is a day to say, 'Thank you God.' The Sabbath is a day when you hug your kids. The Sabbath is a day when you hug a tree."