Posted on 07/02/2008 1:36:31 AM PDT by MartinaMisc
IT WAS two years ago this month that Israel and Hezbollah went to war.
On July 12, 2006, Hezbollah, an Iranian-sponsored and Syrian-backed political and terrorist organization, staged an unprovoked raid across the Lebanon-Israel border, killing three Israelis and kidnapping two others, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. The war that ensued - a war for which Hezbollah had openly prepared for six years, constructing fortified bunkers and amassing thousands of Katyusha artillery rockets along the border - was a disaster for Israel. The fighting lasted for 33 bloody days, during which Israel achieved none of its key objectives: It didn't destroy Hezbollah, it didn't stop the barrage of rockets slamming into its northern cities, and it didn't rescue its kidnapped soldiers.
Never before had Israel's deterrent capability and its reputation for military indomitability suffered such a blow. For the first time in its history, Israel had faced an Arab army in battle and failed to defeat it. When the hostilities ended with the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, Hezbollah was still on its feet, bloodied but decidedly unbowed.
Two years on, Israel is still paying for its defeat.
In a humiliating capitulation last week, the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to free five Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorists, plus a still-undetermined number of other security prisoners, in exchange for the corpses of Regev and Goldwasser. Among those to be turned loose is the notorious Palestinian murderer Samir Kuntar, who in 1979 savagely killed 4-year-old Einat Haran by smashing her skull against a rock with his rifle butt, having first shot her father in the back and then drowned him in the sea.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Surely this can't be real!?!
Israel seems to be backing itself into a corner until it has no option but to push the button.What a mess!
Coverage of the conflict was universally skewed against Israel. Stringers for the major networks were either anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, anti-Western, or pro-Islamic who had close ties to the Islamists. When the shooting started, these so-called photo journalists were chauffeured around by the Islamists for photo opportunities at staged tragedies.
It is a war of public opinion in which the first impression is more important than the truth and in which real people die while the liberal Left sits in comfort passing judgment on the defenders whose only sin is to appear stronger and better equipped than the enemy.
In the end, I guess the message could be that 2 Israeli corpses are worth more than 3 wacko terrorists, but after reading what one of those terrorists did to that little girl, it is inconcievable to me that they are letting this man go. How the hell Olmert can justify that to the people of Israel is beyond me.
Lovely editorializing. The only standing 'military' units were those who were camped around 'UN Observation posts'. That wasn't facing an Arab army, that was facing a large number of terrorists while the world continued to chant that Israel, being randomly shot daily, should show restraint. Had Israel started randomly firing missiles into it's neighbors, the world would have been OUTRAGED for the naked aggression. But no, it's Muslims, so thus, they are immune to facing criticism over their actions.
As for the release of the terrorist for the bodies of two of their servicemen, he'd served nearly a 30 year sentence. In the United States, he'd probably already been freed for good behavior, or by pardon by one of our wackaloons.
Why not corpse-for-corpse exchange? It’s only fair.
And Olmert is still in office with the various government parties unable or unwilling to muster the courage to remove him, even in the face of the current corruption scandal. The Israeli people are committing suicide.
“The Israeli people are committing suicide.”
Can anyone name a civilized nation that is not presently on that exact course?
goldstategop, you are far to kind with regards to the appeasing p.o.s. lawyer Olmert.
Perhaps this is the reason no advanced civilizations have been
found in space. At some point in advancement, they do
not fight back ... and die.
My take is that Jacoby’s article is FOS!
Does no one remember what the Israeli Air Force did to Beirut? My recollection is that outside influences stepped in and helped negotiate a cease fire, mostly because downtown Beirut, having just been rebuilt for the tenth time, was turning to rubble every day as the war continued.
I never did understand why about half of the Israelis felt they had “lost” that war. What could have happened that would have made them happy?
I don’t always get it right, but that’s my view.
That war was lost because Hezbullah repelled the Israeli attack & came out stronger & more prestigious than ever. This is not the first time Israel has lost to Hezbullah, but the second. It was Hezbullah who forced Israel’s withdrawal from South Lebanon in 2000.
Now we reach the conclusion of this war. The war was caused by Hezbullah attacking & kidnapping the 2 Israeli soldiers to exchange for Lebanese prisoners. Nasrallah said that since asking Israel for the prisoners diplomatically had failed, now they would use violence. They did, it worked, & they have gotten their way. There is no doubt anymore as to who won the war.
The Israeli refusal to reinstitute the death penalty simply means they are warehousing terrorists for future release. Capture is simply a temporary inconvenience to the terrorists
I still disagree. Obviously, there is more than one point of view.
The Israeli attack was repulsed, in some part, because Hezbollah had prepared Lebanon’s border with Israel with rocket launchers set inside civilian properties, many firing rockets through holes in rooftops. The Hez defense was spread very widely, and hiding within civilian neighborhoods, kind of like what we went through in Iraq.
It’s no wonder to me why an Israeli ground attack was slowed.
Besides, what kind of victory were the Israelis pursuing?
Conquer Lebanon? Wipe out every living human being in Southern Lebanon? That’s what they would have had to do to “win” over Hezbollah.
Destroying Beirut was a perfect hammer to bludgeon Hezbollah, because Hez is so entrenched into Lebanon that bombing Beirut hurt them a lot, for several reasons.
I must admit that I don’t understand the “prisoner swap”, except to take it at face value, reserving some doubt that it may have a connection to something else not yet public.
Here’s an anology of how I see the war: Hez came into Israel and kicked it in the shins. Israel retaliated and Hez got its face broke. I specifically recall the media describing it that way.
I understand that many Israelis think it was a poor effort against Hez, but I don’t see how the war can be described as a win for Hez, and I wonder if this is driven inside Israel by the general disgust over Olmert
Destroying Beirut ultimately only served to activate the hate for Israel that the average Lebanese of any sect has. It also put them in solidarity with Hezbullah. Destruction in Beirut is inevitable, but Israel should make a conscious decision to avoid disturbing other sects as much as possible & confining their real bloodshed to the South. Shi'a are & have always been a disliked & marginalized population in Lebanon & as long as it only affects them, the rest won't get too worked up about it.
I'm completely against any repeat of the occupation because I witnessed Israel's complete incompetance at dealing with Arabs. & a very complicated place like Lebanon is the last place for them to practice. Syria ran circles around Israel's stumbling attempts at political involvement, on a daily basis. The European Israelis who rule Israel simply have no understanding of Arabs or Middle Easterners in general. The Arab Jews do, as they have the same mentality, but they have no power in Israel.
The IDF should be aware by now that they are very weak at urban warfare & a ground invasion should be avoided for as long as possible. Hezbullah is very, very good at urban warfare. Bad combination. Destruction from the air, firebombing from afar, & things like that are what should be used to soften them up before any Israeli endangers himself on Lebanese soil. But you know, world opinion is more important than Israeli lives.
The victory that Israel needed was to smash Hezbullah, burn & destroy all their bases, media camps, & even martyrs billboards, & execute their leaders on live TV. Anything less solves nothing. Arabs are very tolerant of suffering when they're attacked as a group & you need to have a heavier hand with them than with other people, in order to break them. To defeat them, you must destroy even symbolism & leave no doubt as to who won the war. They will seize on any little thing to claim victory, & the battle is mostly psychological. Especially when dealing with Shi'a, whose whole religion is based on suffering, oppression, martyrdom, & victory in defeat.
This is how I see it.
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