The Israelis no doubt thought that the war with Hezbollah will repeat the astounding successes they have had with the Arabs in the 1956 War, the Six-Day War and the Yom Kipur War, in each of which victory was achieved in a week.
The recent events in Lebanon between Hizballah and Israel don't count as "war" like the other wars you mention. It wasn't tank againt tank, plane against plane, with the taking of territory as the objective.
Yes, Arabs are very good at launching attacks, then running away and hiding among the general population, which you could call "guerilla war" or "4th generation war", although they've been fighting like that since recorded history and probably longer ago.
That technique cannot win territory or any other "hard" objective, just destroy, annoy, and perhaps wear down the other side, which doesn't want to kill the general population at random.
It's well suited for nomadic tribes fighting each other, or raiding merchant caravans, but it's no way to acquire territory, which is the actual objective of Hizballah.
Meanwhile, Hizballah's bombing of Haifa and the surrounding area accomplished nothing, because the Israelis built good bomb shelters long ago, and have good civil defense teams.
But if you think pissing off Israel and living to tell the tale is "victory," then they were "victorious."
Contrarywise, if you think that destroying many millions of dollars worth of necessary infrastructure in Lebanon is "losing" then Israel "lost." God protect Lebanon from any more of such victories! |
