Israel is seeking to deal a decisive defeat to Hizbullah and
not just a strong blow. This is what is meant by Israeli
officials who say that they seek to change the rules of the
game in Lebanon.
As Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Halutz said, the ideology of
Hizbullah cannot be wiped out through force of arms, but
their capabilities as a fighting force can be destroyed.
For several years Hizbullah, as well reflected in the
arrogant behavior of its leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, has
felt that it is riding a wave of success that it attributes
to the potency of its Islamic ideals. Israel seeks to
thoroughly destroy Hizbullah and then to secure guarantees
that it cannot rebuild. If successful, the defeat would be
felt by Hamas and Iran and Syria as well as by Hizbullah.
The dismantling or severe weakening of the Hizbullah Shiite
militia would be a major blow against global terrorism.
However Israeli analysts warn that if Hizbullah emerges
intact as a fighting force — even due to world
pressure — Israeli prestige and the global war on
terrorism could suffer significant setbacks.
Israeli military leaders have said repeatedly that they need
time to finish the job. So far it seems that they have it.
Washington's position has not included any serious
suggestion of pressure on Israel to stop, and even the
Europeans mentioned prominently that Hizbullah was at fault
for starting the hostilities. Members of the G-8 industrial
nations meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, issued a joint
communique Sunday that seemed to give Israel more time to
act.
On Tuesday the IDF announced that it believed that close to
half of Hizbullah's fighting capability had been destroyed
in the six days of the IDF operations in Lebanon. Deputy IDF
Chief of General Staff Maj.-Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky said that
the offensive against Hizbullah would reach its completion
"in a matter of weeks." Later in the day IDF sources said
that it could be as little as one more week.
The Jerusalem Post reported that there appears to be
an anti-Hizbullah coalition spearheaded by Saudi Arabia,
Egypt and Jordan. These three countries, and many individual
Arab commentators and political analysts, are convinced that
the leaders of Teheran and Damascus are using Hizbullah to
divert attention from Iran's nuclear program and Syria's
pressures from the West to curb its terror activities. Their
displeasure with Hizbullah extends to Hamas, which is widely
perceived as also being a client of Damascus and Teheran.
The Saudis were the first to publicly criticize Hizbullah by
saying that people should distinguish between legitimate
resistance and dangerous adventurism by some parties without
cooperation from their governments and the Arab states. The
fact that Israel has forced the Hizbullah leaders into
hiding emboldened Egypt and Jordan to voice similar
criticism. The Palestinians stand almost alone in their
continued support of Hizbullah.
By nightfall Monday, 210 Lebanese had been reported
killed.
Over 700 Katyusha rockets were fired by Hizbullah at Israel
since July 13, 2006, killing 12 Israeli civilians and
wounding over 300. In addition at more than six soldiers
were killed. IDF aircraft have flown over 1,600 sorties, the
IAF's unmanned aerial vehicles have logged approximately 250
hours of flight time in the skies over Lebanon and over 130
missile launch sites in Lebanon have been attacked.
