Hizbollah vs Israel

With both sides claiming victory, I'll just split the difference and say that militarily, the outcome was a draw. Lebanon suffered heavy civilian casualties and hundreds of thousands of displaced. The rebuilding bill could be in the billions. Israel suffered 'only' about 150 dead, but they failed to destroy Hizbollah. Hizbollah can still launch rockets at civilian targets in Israel. Hizbollah also has anti-tank missiles capable of defeating the Merkava, Israel's primary main battle tank. It is one of the best tanks in the world.

Israel did succeed in increasing support for Hizbollah. Nidal Shahib, a taxi driver and loyalist of Lebanon's Communist Party, compared Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbollah's Secretary General, to Che Guevara: "Now I totally accept him. He's a great leader," he said. "Even greater than Che Guevara." Certainly, this is something they should have expected. They indiscriminately bombed Lebanon, and then blamed the Lebanese for the bombings, saying they allowed Hizbollah to be there. They ordered civilians to leave south Lebanon. If the 1967 war had gone differently, and the Arab nations had invaded Israel and ordered the Israelis to leave, the Israelis would have stayed and fought to the death.

So, Israel has at best a military draw with Hizbollah. Aside from the US*, it has lost a great deal of moral standing in the eyes of the world. Israel targeted civilian infrastructure, including civilian convoys, ambulance convoys, pharmaceutical factories, dairy facilities, apartment buildings, entire neighborhoods, and power plants. Yes, Hizbollah fighters are cowards for hiding among civilians. But militarily, they have no choice. They can't fight aircraft and tanks in open ground.

Hizbollah now has greatly increased standing in the eyes of the Arab world for successfully resisting the Israeli Army. I wonder if the price the Lebanese people had to pay figures into their equation. It probably does not. Madeline Albright once said that the price of starving as many as half a million Iraqi children was "worth it" to get Saddam Hussein out (although, it must be pointed out, the sanctions did not remove Hussein). Hizbollah probably uses similar calculus.

I certainly do pray for an end to Hizbollah. But the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, and the invasions of Lebanon, all these must end also.

Also, I would like to offer prayers for David and Uri Grossman. David is said to be one of the few Israeli writers who offer nuanced, sympathetic portrayals of the Palestinians in his work. He initially supported the invasion to destroy Hizbollah, but later held a press conference with two other writers (Amos Oz and A.B. Yehoshua) to demand that Olmert reach a cease-fire agreement. Two days after this, his son, Staff Sgt Uri Grossman, was killed in the war.


* Inside the US, of course, Israel is still a Godly nation. It is pointed out in one of the articles below that there is more criticism of Israeli foreign policy in Israel itself than in the US. John Dingell, my congressman, was accused of being a Hizbollah apologist when he suggested that we needed to be evenhanded in condemning violence.

Some articles:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-fg-lebanon15aug15,0,4718847.story?track=mostviewed-homepage
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article1219260.ece
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1219280.ece