So the cease-fire has taken hold in southern Lebanon. I’m wondering, though, who won? Here we have on one hand President Bush claiming victory for Israel and saying that Hezbollah has been defeated. On the other hand, Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah claiming a “strategic, historic victory.”
I’m not clear if either side came close to victory at all. Victory implies the accomplishment of one or many objectives. Victory in World War II meant the complete surrender of the Axis powers. Victory in the Gulf War meant the outster of Iraqi forces from Kuwait’s territory. Let me go out on a limb here and figure out what were the objectives of the two sides in the conflict.
Israel’s Objectives
Israel had just seen its soldiers kidnapped in the Gaza by Hamas and along the Lebanese border by Hezbollah. In addition, even after withdrawing from southern Lebanon six years ago, cities in the north of Israel had endured hundreds of rocket attacks from Hezbollah bases. My guess is that Israel wanted the complete destruction of Hezbollah as a fighting force.
Objectives Achieved?
Israel managed to disable a lot of Lebanon itself and blow hundreds of civilians to smithereens, but even in the last hours of the war, Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets into Israeli territory. From what it looks like, Hezbollah is hurt, but not destroyed or disabled in any way. For a country whose history is made up of overwhelming, blitzkreig victories, this cannot be anything less than a disappointing end.
Hezbollah’s Objectives
Faced with the awesome power of the Israeli army, their objective was most likely to simply stay alive and fight back as hard as they could. I personally believe they are the aggressors here, and I would love nothing more than to see every last Hezbollah soldier either disarmed or killed. However, as said earlier, that clearly didn’t happen.
Objectives Achieved?
Hezbollah is still there, and apparently still in control of what is left of southern Lebanon. Will they yield to the Lebanese army and the multinational force?
So what’s happened here? It really looks like a stalemate from Israel’s perspective, and a victory from Hezbollah’s side. No one ever said fighting guerillas were easy; why should Israel have been an exception? I’m disappointed as I’m sure a lot of Israelis are. I want to see Hezbollah gone. Their purpose of existence is to achieve the destruction of Israel. I think it’s very clear that no country should have to tolerate rocket attacks from an enemy, but everyone seems to expect Israel to.
When the civilians return to southern Lebanese cities and see the ruin wrecked by the Hezbollah strategy of using residential areas as bases from which to launch their attacks, it is my hope that the civilians will see how Hezbollah has so carelessly disregarded the safety of their fellow Lebanese in their jihadist zeal to destroy the “Zionist state.” Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to happen, unfortunately.
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Why Israel have to be the “Zionist” state? Why can’t it be just an another country with special symbolism?
Zionism kinda trigger resentful and hateful attitudes. I do not see that the meaning of Zionism to be vigorously defensive and offensive against any kind of threat(s).
I absolutely agree with you about the Hezbollah unnecessarily drag the Lebanonese civilians into the unforseen casualties of war.
I still believe that Israel ought to handle the recent strife differently by miminizing the damages to the Lebanonese intrafrascture. Why can’t Israel simply use her own special forces and Mossad agents to inflirate and terminate the Hezbollah fighters? That would be more cost-effective and rational for Lebanese going more economically progressive. Poverty is the breeding ground for terrorists, but evidence show opposite of who and how terrorist turn up to be.
RLM
Let’s say both Israel and Hezbollah winning the war! No one is winning from the war anyway! Claim the victory from war really meant nothing!
Everyone know that “war is hell”. General Douglas MacArthur did create this memorable quote.
RLM
No, William T. Sherman said that, after his march to the sea in the final days of the Civil War. He did certainly make the South howl.
Thanks for correcting me, Tescumeh! I truly appreciate your correction.
Oops, what’s matter with me? I am an ardent history reader myself. *smacking on my forehead*
I admired Tescumeh’s “slash and burn” tactics by melting down the Southern rail lines and tied them up like “bow”. This warfare tactic were such necessary to bring the Conferedacy mules into submission for the full surrender.
Thanks again!!!!
RLM
Ehm, I read the Express this morning when Bush declared that Israel won the war. Who gave him the right to declare victory in a country that he does not represent? I’m very skeptical about his role in the politics. Though I do not agree with Hezbollah’s antics - they clearly knew where they needed to attack while Israel destroyed the beautiful city of Beirut which is in the mid of Lebanon and disabled every bridge in the north which they “claim” that Hezbollah uses to transport weapons and such. Hezbollah operates in the south!
Instead, Israel, like usual, handicapped residents in the Lebanon who had nothing to do with the guerrillas and killed civilians. Earlier in the war, they bombed a village where women and children were killed, not a single guerrilla on the list.
Why do you advocate this war against the Hezbollah? What about Israeli actions? Haven’t they done more damages than Hezbollah? And, haven’t you considered peace treaty or a force of discussions among the leaders?
Katia,
While propaganda tears are shed over the deaths in Qana, consider the reality of this war in which a civilian targeting army who uses its own civilians as shields invariably gets the sympathy vote of the Israel and America haters on the left:
The area of Beirut that has been hit by Israeli forces is about as big as two race tracks and consists of the neighborhood in which Hezbollah has set up its headquarters and arsenals, and the airports and ports which are the supply routes for Hezbollah from Syria and Iran.
Follow this link http://thewildhare.org/Beiruta.....asof21.jpg
to the map which no “news” media has to my knowledge shown.
Bush declared victory for Israel makes one simple word. Politics. Nobody should bother listen to his claims even knowing he has done nothing between the middle east crisis.
The whole war was strategized well by the Hezbollah since there were reportedly approximately 30-40 civilians dead as of this morning while Lebanese civilian toll was shockingly at 900-1,000. Could you please explain this? I doubt they use civilians as shields.
I’m not a Shiite Muslim, and I don’t support what Hezbollah was/is doing; but I strongly believe that Israel initiated this war by sending rockets to the country and endangering lives of innocent civilians.
I don’t know why Hezbollah thought they’d get away when Hezbollah captured 2 Israeli soldiers in hopes for exchanging for Lebanese prisoners. This was a stupid move.
I think you forgot that this whole war was started by Hezbollah and, therefore, it is Hezbollah who bears all responsibility for the hits it has taken from the Israeli military acting in pure self-defense. Israel left every square inches of Lebanon in 2000, and even had this withdrawal witnessed by the UN so there was really no reason for Hezbollah to continue its provocations whatsoever. Hezbollah has no reason to exist and must go as simple as it is.
YOu got it right! Hezbollah is actually a terrorist group and they must be wiped out for the sake of PEACE for the whole world.
http://www.americanchronicle.c.....leID=11990
No, Sacha.
Both Israel and Hezbollah bear responsibility for their own actions. Who did this first, who did that first, is the province of the kindergarden playground, not adults, certainly not adults with weapons which cause death, yes?
This was the latest gasp in a war which has spanned decades, since Israel was formed. Israel tried to occupy southern Lebanon for many years. Hezbollah was created in 1982 to prevent occupation. You could say Israel sowed the seeds of its own destruction, but so far, Hezbollah has been sadly ineffective: whatever you think about who’s responsible, right now the total stands at 39 dead Israelis, over 700 dead Lebanese.
Obviously, Hezbollah has and never had any real weapons. Obviously, Israel had no clear plan of action, but Olmert seems to be pulling a “bush” by trying to do what his predecessors could not - occupy Southern Lebanon.
I think most of the anger at Hezbollah is basically because they’re Arab and we have the image of the Arab terrorist going around. Yeah, they’re “bad,” if you want an easy-to-point-to bad guy, but then so is Israel in its choices in history. But they should both be held responsible for their behavior. Especially with a total of oh, 800 dead? And for what? Some buildings Israel claims were Hezbollah’s were blown up on the ports. Hezbollah bombed some flowers and grass and occasionally accidentially hit someone.
I forgot to mention the first toll is of Israeli civilian toll. Just want to clear things up.
Lebanese casualties are of 815 dead, while Israel suffered 157 dead. Not 900-100 versus 30-40.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....non_israel
The 115 you added to your count, Sacha, are soldiers, not civilians. I believe those should be counted separately. Israel was very clear in separating the numbers in all their news reports. Should we not honor their wishes?
If anything, I respect that the blogger attempts to look at this from both sides. The issue is so complex with deep runing emotions that its hard to step back and look at the facts. Then again, what are the “real facts?”
Don’t bother to try to set back and try not to be “biased”. Your post is BIASED, no matter what. It’s because you cannot escape your ideology that was taught to you by your parents, etc. We cannot rely on “American” press anymore because they are not honest. Israel started this war, not Hezbollah. Israel just found an excuse to start this war. In the name of “war on terror”…
Read this article written by respectable scholars:
http://www.chomsky.info/letters/20060719.htm
Sacha, my mistake but you have to admit the numbers fall close to the reports. Israel did not act in self-defense like they claimed. Hezbollah did not threaten Israeli civilians and Hezbollah did not attack Israel directly. The only action that instigated this whole war was by Hezbollah capturing and kidnapping Israeli soldiers in hopes for exchanging of Lebanese prisoners for the soldiers.
You can see the timeline here on Washington Post Hezbollah captured two soldiers and killed 8. Wants to exchange for Hezbollah prisoners. Israel declared war. Killed Lebanese civilians.
For Rice, a Painful 24 Hours
(I found out a rumor from a relative that U.S. and Israel has been conspirating this against Hezbollah for some time. That may have explain it all.)
Please note that I’m not a pro-Hezbollah but I’m against what Israeli government did. They have violated U.N. policies for years.
Aargh! My post disappeared! Sacha, Israel instigated this war, not Hezbollah. Hezbollah captured and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers in hopes for exchanging for Hezbollah prisoners (I previously thought it was for Lebanese soldiers, my mistake). Hezbollah killed 8 soldiers that night. Israel declared war on Lebanon, not Hezbollah; Lebanon has nothing to do with Hezbollah. Lebanese army is considerably weak and Hezbollah has the power in the south. Most Lebaneses even admit they support Hezbollah because they don’t believe in Israeli occupation (of Palestine) and Israeli state.
Sacha, the numbers I provided did fall close to the reports, didn’t they?
I’m surprised anyone did not mention the Emergency March last Saturday… A protestor held up a poster that says, “a Jew marching along with these people, No to Israel!” (something to that effect.) No one wanted to possibly acknowledge that U.S. *may* have a role in this war (a conspiracy against Hezbollah) along with Israel, which I found out from a relative.
Adam, I don’t see any neutrality in your blog, which is disappointing. I don’t support Hezbollah nor do I support Israel, but it would be nice to have a refreshing perspective on this issue, rather than a biased one.
Actually, bloggers do not need to be neutral. This is not a platform for investigative reporting. But DeafDC.com is great because it’s open to input from all.
Please allow Adam the freedom of expression. Even if he isn’t a Republican ;)
you mean he’s a democrat? *shock* oh, the horror!!!
(the above comment is completely a joke.)
Technically, Hzbollah started it. Irsaeli had the right to defend themselves!
July 12, 2006 - Hezbollah launches rockets across the Lebanense border, targetting several Israeli border towns, and then stages an attack in which three Israeli soldiers are killed and two more kidnapped.
July 13, 2006 - Israel responds by imposing a blockade in Lebanon and hitting several targets within southern Lebanon, including two airports and a military air strip.
July 14, 2006 - Hezbollah fires rockets, causing major damage in the Israeli town of Haifa. Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announces that in order for Israel to call a ceasefire, Hezbollah must disarm, end its rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, and return the kidnapped soldiers.
July 21, 2006 - Israeli army calls up its reservists, preparing for possible ground offensive in Lebanon.
July 22, 2006 - United States rushes delivery of precision bombs to Israel and US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice rejects calls for ceasefire, calling the violence in Lebanon “birth pangs of a new Middle East.”
July 25, 2006 - Israeli airstrike kills four UN observers, an act Kofi Annan calls “apparently deliberate”
July 26, 2006 - UN Security Council condemnation of the Israeli airstrike vetoed by the United States.
July 30, 2006 - Over 50 Lebanese civilians and more than thirty children killed in Qana, Lebanon by Israeli air strike, igniting international outrage. Israel announces a 48-hour cessation of air strikes, will it will later break, and 24-hours for Lebanese civilians to leave southern Lebanon through “humanitarian corridors” to be coordinated by the UN. UN says it was not given enough time to mobilize the effort.
August 1, 2006 - Israel troops push across border into Lebanon, killing 20 Hezbollah militants.
August 4, 2006 - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gives several interviews to the international press in which he affirms Israel’s intention to cripple Hezbollah, but welcomes the role of an international peacekeeping force in the very near future and says Israel has no intention of broadening the fight to the rest of Lebanon. Meanwhile, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warns Hezbollah will fire rockets at Tel Aviv if Israel attacks Beirut and an Iraqi Shia leader calls for a “million man march” in support of Hezbollah.
August 12, 2006 - Israel and Hezbollah agree to a UN-brokered ceasefire to go into effect Monday, August 14, 2006. The ceasefire will provide for the release of the two kidnapped Israeli soldiers and for a buffer zone in southern Lebanon patrolled by Lebanese military and UN peacekeepers. (See: full text of the UN resolution). However, fighting continues on both sides as Israel initiates massive troop movement into Lebanon.
Katia,
Never once did Israel declare war to the Lebanese government or the Lebanese people -on the contrary. They have taken every precaution, from dropping leaflets urging civilians to leave their homes ahead of planned strikes on Hezbollah strongholds to issuing warnings on local radios, in an attempt to minimize the civilian casualties and save the Siniora government. If Israel had really wanted to wage a war against Lebanon and its people, they could easily have hit infrastructure more representative of the Lebanese government than that of Hezbollah. Israel’s problem has always been with Hezbollah, which has been operating freely as a state in a state for a while already. As ugly as it is, war is never a beautiful thing, and there’ll always be collateral damages –especially if Hezbollah is operating from population centers because they profit from their own civilians’ death as much as from the death of Israeli civilians.
You said that “Lebanon has nothing to do with Hezbollah”, yet Hezbollah has been launching its attacks from Lebanese territory, which makes Lebanon responsible for the consequences, at least partly. Akin to any act of harm caused by your child to your neighbor, operating from your house: you are responsible for whatever action that emanates from your territory. Lebanon cannot just shield from that responsibility, especially when it was warned for many years that Hezbollah’s continuing provocations in the south was creating friction and could result in what we’ve been witnessing for the past month –retaliation from the Israeli side.
As for the kidnapping you claim to be just a natural act that should be justified by the intent of getting some prisoners back: did you know that Hezbollah’s main goal is to secure the release of Samir Kuntar, a notorious murderer who killed an Israeli policeman along with his family in 1983? Why should Israel free people with blood on their hands? What about the missing Israeli pilot, Ron Arad, that has been missing for over 20 years and which Hezbollah has always refused to disclose any bit of information, despite a massive prisoner exchange that occurred a couple of years ago? If Hezbollah wants to stop seeing their people being killed and arrested by Israel, let them stop committing crimes in the first place –I can only assure you that Israel will then be more than happy to stop running after Hezbollah militants. They a lot of more interesting things they would love to devote their attention and energy than being constantly on the lookout for their defense.
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/.....821fa_fact
Read this…an article in New Yorker by the famous Seymor H.
I have a question.
Why is Israel worth defending? What is it that the United States must assist and defend from the Arabs from attacking?
I am just curious thats all.
I personally support Israel’s right to defend itself by any means. I was disappointed that Israel has agreed to the cease-fire. I think this is a fatal mistake on Israel’s part.
Mainly because this will provide the means for wounded Hezbollahs to solicit funds and stock more weapons from Syria and Iraq.
The next time Hezbollahs attack Israel, it will be a major bloodbath. So you can see … the cease-fire is a way for Hezbollahs to recuperate its wounds and do things.
Let’s face the reality: the UN peacekeeping team is full of joke. They are powerless to stop the Hezbollahs from scheming for another round of attacks on Israel.
So this time, who really possessed the “victory”?
It is Hezbollahs. Why? Read above.
Israel lost the opportunity to crush and wipe the group off the map.
R-
FYI, I don’t think Israel can “wipe the group off the map,” if you read the Wikipedia entry you can see this is a group with a lot of support through the middle East. They seem to support the creation of a Jewish state - they just want the return of the lands Israel took in the 60’s and for them to stop killing Palestinians.
As for which place is “better” - Israel allows lesbian and gay marriage. Yay! Well, sort of, anyway; there’s been lesbians allowed to adopt, but their army still beats up the faygehlehs… In fact almost every middle eastern country kills the homos except for Israel. Which may be one reason people don’t like them… *sigh* But I will support Israel as long as their behavior is reasonable. I do think they were stupid to go into Lebanon with the history of occupation behind them. It lost them a lot of support from regular Lebanese.
I did not want to start a new thread, but I hope it
is ok for me to share this link. It not only directly related to the issue between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon but between Israel/West and all those Muslim terrorist groups.
I will share a link that will bring you to a transcript eloquently spoken by an Arab-American that I saw on a video clip with caption. Her name is Wafa Sultan. Here is her take on the Muslim world:
http://www.memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=1050
Based on the video clip I saw, it appears that she
was speaking in Arabic language or it was only her accent that makes it look like that. If she does speak
Arabic, which I hope, it’s good that she knows another language to connect with the Muslim world.
If any one of you are able to find a video clip of the same transcript, please do share. It was powerful watching her speak.
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