Reading through UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and Caroline Glick’s pointed analysis of it leaves little room for doubt that Israel did not obtain victory in this fight.
The shame of it is that victory could probably have been obtained quite easily. Or at least far more easily than in Israel’s previous wars. Continue reading »
Make no mistake about it, as things currently stand, Israel has lost its war with Hizb’allah. Despite Defense Minister Amir Peretz’s ludicrous announcement Sunday that Israel has won the war, not one single stated military objective has been met.
Two Israeli soldiers are still in captivity, Hizb’allah is demonstrating once again today that it is still very capable of pounding northern Israel, and IDF troops and armor are being taken out in worrying numbers by a well-armed and highly-trained enemy.
Some in Israel will point to the terms of the UN-imposed ceasefire, which calls for Hizb’allah to withdraw north of the Litani River, as an achievement. But who is naive enough to believe the terrorists will really withdraw? Or that a sympathetic French-led force and the Shi’ite-dominated Lebanese army will actually enforce that stipulation?
No. Israel has lost. And Hizb’allah knows it. More concerning, the wider Muslim world knows it.
For decades Israel’s deterrence was based on the Arabs’ belief that the IDF was simply too powerful to be beaten. But this conflict, which saw a small band of terrorists use easily-obtained anti-tank missiles to inflict crushing losses on a mighty military machine, has ended that myth.
Israel, so long as it fights by the world’s rules, can be beat. That lesson will not be lost on the Arabs and Iranians the next time they decide to pick a fight. And it won’t be long before they do.
Senior Israeli lawmaker Ephraim Sneh, a prominent figure in defense circles, made the assessment this week that Israel will inevitably have to fight Iran sometime in the near future.
But the Jerusalem Post Thursday made the observation that Israel is already fighting Iran, and Lebanon is the battlefield.
Hizb’allah is in effect a brigade of Iranian commandoes, Tehran’s vanguard forces in its quest to see Israel, in the words of President Ahmadinejad, “wiped off the map.” That fact makes Israel’s need to deal Hizb’allah a decisive defeat all the more pressing.
For Israel to not emerge victorious in this fight will signal victory for Hizb’allah, regardless of how many terrorists are killed, and provide Iran with encouragement and valuable information on how future battles against the Jewish state should be conducted.
Kofi Annan and the international community are so busy trying to find Israeli violations of international law in the current fighting, they are completely ignoring daily war crimes being committed by Hizb’allah. Continue reading »
Kofi Annan and his buddies at the UN are daily fretting over the mounting humanitarian crisis in Lebanon, pointing to the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by Israel’s military operations against Hizb’allah.
Meanwhile, the two million residents of Israel’s northern regions who have either been forced from their homes or into cramped bomb shelters by incessant Hizb’allah rocket fire are virtually forgotten. With the conflict dragging on longer than most had hoped, many can no longer afford to stay away, and find themselves forced to return north, full of fear and despair, putting themselves and their children in harm’s way.
Forgive me for playing the anti-Semitism card once again, but this smacks of precisely the attitude of the international community as Jews were being slaughtered in their millions by the Nazis during World War II. Then, too, the world did its best to ignore the Jewish humanitarian crisis until it had no choice but to acknowledge it due to the horrendous death toll.
The Lebanese government, in what news agencies described as an “extraordinary” event, decided unanimously Monday to deploy up to 15,000 troops in southern Lebanon, provided Israel withdraw its forces first. That decision is also certain to cause excitement in Washington and the capitals of Europe, as well as the halls of the UN. Continue reading »
This video shows Hizb’allah firing multiple rockets at northern Israel from the southern Lebanon village of Qana, as well as storing its arms in buildings and houses in that community. When Israel hits these villages with intense airstrikes, it is not out of aggression, but self defense. Israel, like every other nation, has the right to return fire on the origin of fire against its own civilians.
If and when Lebanese civilians lose their lives as a result of this series of events, their blood is first and foremost on Hizb’allah’s hands, for obvious reasons. After Hizb’allah, the civilians themselves are most responsible for their own deaths for not leaving the area despite being warned by Israel for days prior to the airstrikes to do so.
Israel may regret these civilian deaths, but it bears no responsibility whatsoever for collateral damage incurred during defense strikes against the origin of fire on its sovereign territory.
Despite strong speeches by its leaders and what appeared to be an initial recognition of the necessity for outright victory against Hizb’allah, Israel now appears unable to do what is needed to actually achieve that goal.
Ha’aretz correspondent Ze’ev Schiff warns that if the IDF and political echelon do not get on the same page soon and implement a strong and unified battle plan, the conflict with Hizb’allah will turn into a war of attrition, bringing the Galilee region to its knees.
IDF Northern Command says it has a plan for victory, but it seems the Olmert government, which insists on approving every small step in this war before it is taken, has delayed implementation of the winning strategy as it looks over its shoulder to see what the international community is saying.
Cabinet meetings are turning into endless debates with no decisions taken the longer this fight drags on, putting victory further out of reach every day.
It doesn’t matter how many Hizb’allah men Israel kills or how many of the terrorists’ rockets are destroyed. Hizb’allah can recruit more willing fighters, and Iran and Syria will gladly supply more arms. All Hizb’allah has to do to win this fight is survive and demonstrate an ability to continue threatening northern Israel when all is said and done.
The burden of proof, therefore, is on Israel. Will Israel deal Hizb’allah and its sponsors such a harsh blow that despite the ability to recruit more men and obtain more weapons the group would never dare to use them again? Or will ultimate victory elude Jerusalem, leading to an irreversible tarnishing of the IDF’s image has the region’s mightiest military force and the deterrence that perception so long provided against Muslim aggression?
Condi Rice today claimed that Iraq is en route to becoming one of America’s strongest and most fierce allies in the global war on terror, by virtue of the fact its population has suffered so much terror lately.
But her theory has one gaping hole. Continue reading »
Israel needs to wake up and declare war on the nation of Lebanon, rather than focus its military efforts solely on the Hizb’allah terrorist organization. The reasons are many, but the more important ones include the fact that successive Lebanese governments, including the current democratically-elected one, have allowed Hizb’allah to arm, flourish, take control of parts of the country and launch attacks on a neighboring state.
Lebanon is still officially in a state of war with Israel, and according to comments by Lebanon’s president and official statements by its armed forces, Hizb’allah is an invaluable strategic asset in that war. Continue reading »
