I think the war in S Lebanon was an absolute decimation of Hezbelloh. Israel knocked the shit out of them, with Hezbelloh launching thousands of ineffective weapons at Israel. Maybe it was my imagination, but Isreal did billions worth of damage to Lebanon and they were left unscathed. I would call that a crushing victo
That's not the perception in Israel. The Israelis think that Israel had a golden chance to decimate Hezbullah, but frittered it away trying to get victory on the cheap through air power alone. As for what exactly did happen, remember that while reality is one thing, perception is quite another, especially in the Mideast. It is clear that Hizbullah took a hard blow, losing most of its long range missiles and southern Lebanese bunkers, and about 4 or 5 hundred fighters.
However, Nasrallah survived, and so did Hizbullah. Israel's electronic warfare didn't even manage to knock out their command and control, and Israel isn't staying in Lebanon. Hizbullah landed hundreds of missiles on Israeli cities, great for propaganda even though they didn't do much. As for the Hizbullah dead, they all became innocent civilians the instant they died, with the active cooperation of the AP and MSM.
Arabs go into war with low expectations, Israelis with high ones. This counts as an Arab victory, even though militarily Hizbullah got the worst of it. The only chance the Israelis have of salvaging a good outcome depends on the Lebanese - if they decide that they are just not going to let Hizbullah drag them into another war for the sake of Iran, then Israel will have gotten a benefit from the war. Otherwise, you can count this a timeout between rounds.
As for the Palestinians, hoo-ha. Abba Eban is always right. The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. They are perpetual welfare queens, recipients of the highest per capita foreign aid on the planet. Their very cause is a grievance, and by now they are convinced the whole world owes them a living. They don't want a state. If they had a state, they'd be expected to earn their own living. |
