To: Hawkmoon who wrote (192005 ) 7/19/2006 1:31:48 AM From: Bilow Read Replies (1) | Respond to Hi Hawkmoon; Re: "It's only one division that WE HAVE HEARD ABOUT.. It should not be construed that other divisions have not been called up. "The Israel Defense Forces estimate that 10-14 more days are necessary in order to meet the military aims of the operation in Lebanon. [Not like you can wipe out Hezbollah in that sort of time period, by invasion or by air. Instead, what you can hope is that they run out of rockets. Uh, hope is not a plan.] According to General Staff estimates, it is possible to greatly intensify the scope of the attacks against the Hezbollah rockets, with special emphasis on their longer-range weapons, as well as strikes against senior members of the group's operational arm. [In other words, get some better intelligence, probably by risking assets.] A senior military source said on Tuesday that Israel seeks "to significantly weaken Hezbollah but not crush it." He said that "it is impossible to crush a popular, religious movement." [This is basically my point exactly.] Some IDF ground troops crossed into southern Lebanon on Wednesday to carry out attacks on Hezbollah guerrilla outposts. "These are restricted, pinpoint attacks," an IDF spokesman said. "This is not out of the ordinary. This has been happening close to the border." [In other words, they're doing more of the same, crossing the border, small units, maybe take a prisoner or two. Oh, wasn't it just this sort of pinpoint attack that Israel used as a justification for starting this? Another case of who hit who back, first.] The army has not ruled out the possibility of a major land offensive at some stage. [I think that this is an idle threat.] He added that that "over the course of the last 24 hours, very successful attacks have continued, especially those of the air force but also other units, by land and by sea, in Lebanon." [Why should Israel invade if they can have a victory the easy way? Just declare it. They're already "very successful".] "Until now, over 1,000 terrorist targets have been attacked, including 180 Katyusha and long-range rocket launch sites," Eisencott said. [Ah, the numbers game. Another alternative to actually fighting Hezbollah toe to toe.] A day's fighting in the north is estimated to cost more than NIS 50 million. Peretz instructed the IDF to enable as many factories as possible along the northern border to reopen so that damage to the economy can be minimized. [This isn't the hard Israel of 1967. This is the easy going Israel of 2006 that just wants to make a buck (shekel). The economy is more important than safety. Heck, as I've been telling you, keeping the economy healthy is the most important thing for Israel as with a lousy economy, they lose the demographic battle that much faster. Israel needs immigrants and immigrants don't want to move to places where the economy sucks.] The Home Front Command will decide which factories have the necessary reinforcement to protect workers from possible rocket strikes. haaretz.com
