Hezbollah Singes Samson's Locks

[Tiki Tam Tam]

Hezbollah Singes Samson's Locks

By K Gajendra Singh 23 August, 2006

Writing in 'Foreign Policy In Focus' , Prof Stephen Zunes said " The Bush administration and an overwhelming bipartisan majority of Congress have gone on record defending Israel's assault on Lebanon's civilian infrastructure as a means of attacking Hezbollah "terrorists." Unlike the major Palestinian Islamist groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah forces haven't killed any Israeli civilians for more than a decade. Indeed, a 2002 Congressional Research Service report noted, in its analysis of Hezbollah, that "no major terrorist attacks have been attributed to it since 1994." The most recent State Department report on international terrorism also fails to note any acts of terrorism by Hezbollah since that time except for unsubstantiated claims that a Hezbollah member was a participant in a June 1996 attack on the U.S. Air Force dormitory at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia.

When Prof Zunes contacted scores of Congressional offices after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution in March last year by an overwhelming 380-3 margin condemning "the continuous terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hezbollah" , no proof was forthcoming . The House resolution had cited the testimony of former CIA director George Tenet (who also insisted that the case for Iraq having weapons of mass destruction was a "slam dunk"), in which he made the bizarre accusations that Hezbollah is "an organization with the capability and worldwide presence [equal to] al-Qaida, equal if not far more [of a] capable organization … they're a notch above in many respects … which puts them in a state sponsored category with a potential for lethality that's quite great." But then there have been a litany of spins and lies by top US leaders on Iraq, Iran and you name it.

More than a militia or conventional army, Hezbollah is a social and political movement deeply rooted in its society, with a big constituency within the Lebanese Shia community that comprises about 40 percent of the country's 4 million people. Hezbollah organizes a welfare system providing schools, clinics, daycare centers and jobs to hundreds of thousands of poor Shias. During the war Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah announced that all those whose houses and property were damaged by Israeli bombings would be compensated. Soon after the cease fire there were queues of people being paid compensation , much before any other Lebanese or foreign organization could muster themselves into action.

Equally important, Hezbollah provides the Shia community, historically disadvantaged and marginalized in Lebanon, a sense of identity and a source of pride. Israel's military targeting of Shias will deepen feelings of victimization among them and turn them – even further – against Israel and the West. Through out history Shia Imams were harassed , victimized and even assassinated by their Sunni Caliphs and Muslims .Such victimization can be still seen in most Sunni majority countries ie Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey , Saudi Arabia and others .

A national poll conducted in Lebanon in early August by the Beirut Center for Research and Information showed a sharp rise in support for Hezbollah since the Israeli invasion: 87 percent of respondents supported Hezbollah's military response, including 89 percent of Sunnis and 80 percent of Christians. Five months ago, just 58 percent supported Hezbollah's right to remain armed. Also, 89 percent of the respondents said the US was not an honest broker, not responding positively to Lebanon's needs and concerns. In fact, the bombings and killings of civilians and destruction of Lebanon's infrastructure , would aid Hezbollah's recruiting."

The Ibn Khaldun Center in Egypt just released the results of a poll of the Egyptian public. It found Hassan Nasrallah, the most popular politician in Egypt. In second place comes Khalid Mashal, the radical Hamas leader based in Damascus and in third place Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In spite of all facts to the contrary US leadership led President George Bush and corporate media keep on referring to Lebanon's national resistance Hezbollah as terrorists showing their visceral bias against freedom fighters resisting western occupation and domination. They are like the Popes in medieval times proclaiming that the earth was flat.

Israeli terrorist movements against the British occupation of Palestine were led by Begin and Shamir , who later became Prime Ministers

Prof .Robert A. Pape, of the University of Chicago and author of "Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism, " wrote recently that "Evidence of the broad nature of Hezbollah's resistance to Israeli occupation can be seen in the identity of its suicide attackers. Hezbollah conducted a broad campaign of suicide bombings against American, French and Israeli targets from 1982 to 1986. Altogether, these attacks - which included the bombing of the Marine barracks in 1983 - involved 41 suicide terrorists.

" In writing my book on suicide attackers, I had researchers scour Lebanese sources to collect martyr videos, pictures and testimonials and the biographies of the Hezbollah bombers. Of the 41, we identified the names, birth places and other personal data for 38. Shockingly, only eight were Islamic fundamentalists. Twenty-seven were from leftist political groups like the Lebanese Communist Party and the Arab Socialist Union. Three were Christians, including a female high-school teacher with a college degree. All were born in Lebanon.

" What these suicide attackers - and their heirs today - shared was not a religious or political ideology but simply a commitment to resisting a foreign occupation. Nearly two decades of Israeli military presence did not root out Hezbollah. The only thing that has proven to end suicide attacks, in Lebanon and elsewhere, is withdrawal by the occupying force.

Most Lebanese acknowledge Hezbollah's leading role in fighting Israel, but what many Lebanese consistently refer to as the "national resistance" is a broad coalition that includes virtually all of Lebanon's most important political forces, including Amal, the other main Shi'ite movement, the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP), other left groups and liberal democrats - and even the right-wing Free Patriotic Movement of General Michel Aoun.

"We have a joke that, in the average Lebanese family with seven children, four will be with Hezbollah, two will be with the communists and one will be with Amal - all of them with the resistance," says Khaled Hadadeh, secretary general of the LCP. According to Hadadeh, at least 12 LCP members and supporters died in the fighting.

Like many resistance movements fighting against colonialism and foreign occupation , the evolution of Lebanese Hezbollah movement from a terrorist group to a legal political party has been a positive development in the region. "Like many radical Islamist parties elsewhere, Hezbollah (meaning "Party of God") combines populist rhetoric, important social service networks for the needy, and a decidedly reactionary and chauvinistic interpretation of Islam in its approach to contemporary social and political issues. In Lebanese parliamentary elections earlier last year, Hezbollah ended up with fourteen seats outright in the 128-member national assembly, and a slate shared with the more moderate Shiite party Amal gained an additional twenty-three seats. Hezbollah controls one ministry in the 24-member cabinet," said Prof Zunes.

As required under UN Security Council resolution 1559, Hezbollah was negotiating with the Lebanese government and other interested Lebanese parties, to disband the party's military wing Before the Israeli assault, Hezbollah could probably count on no more than a thousand active-duty militiamen , but the numbers would now mount up.

And what about 1967 UN Resolution 242 and many others which Israel refuses to implement since decades and others against it which USA keeps on vetoing. Even EU polls rate Israel and US as the top nations against peace and for violence around the world, as seen daily on TV screens.

Fawaz Trabulsi, a Lebanese professor who helped lead Palestinian-allied militia forces against the Israeli army in 1982, said , "They [Hezbollah] have a military and intelligence organization totally separated from the political organization." A dramatic example of the secrecy and careful preparations for conflict with Israel was Hezbollah's al-Manar television. The station kept broadcasting from hidden studios throughout the fighting, despite repeated Israeli air strikes against relay towers and antennas across the country. Many believed that some of the broadcasts seemed to include coded messages to Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon.

(contd)

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

Nasrallah was able to use al-Manar to make a number of speeches rallying his followers and explaining his strategy. With his cleric's turban and youthful appearance , appearing on the screen in pre-taped broadcasts, he was perhaps the biggest secret of all, hunted by Israeli warplanes and hiding in a location about which Lebanese could only guess.

It was clear that Hezbollah has not been penetrated at all ." I think it's no secret that the Israeli military didn't have the intelligence on this," said Richard Straus, who publishes the Middle East Policy Survey newsletter in Washington. "They didn't know what Hezbollah had, how it had built up, what it was capable of."

Milt Bearden who serves on the board of directors of Conflicts Forum, a U.K. based NGO which fosters dialogue between Islamist groups and the West and has talked with Hezbollah officials about the group's transition to a more politically-focused party, both before and after the 2005 Lebanese elections , dismisses the idea of knocking out Hezbollah through military activity. "The concept of dismantling or eliminating Hezbollah is fatally flawed from the very start. Hezbollah is an organic part of that 40 percent of the Lebanese population that is Shia."

And with Hezbollah still standing, he says, a new power dynamic has emerged. "There's nothing to compare with the Israeli Defense Force in the Mideast," he says, but Hezbollah's persistence through weeks of air strikes has shown the limits of Israel's strength. "We talk about 20 Hezbollah fighters killed today, or whatever the new numbers are. That's nothing. There are 500 that will pick up the weapons behind them now."

Asked about Hezbollah's possible role at the bargaining table Bearden said . "They've got a lot of very smart people. These are not a bunch of wild-eyed fanatics." "But they've always been willing to try to broaden the dialogue quietly. In the last year I've been in many hours of meetings with some of them, to where I can guarantee you that they would have welcomed a quiet dialogue with the United States, and they have repeatedly said they have no great quarrel with the United States," he added.

Bearden continued ,"I think we ( West ) have probably given up any possible role as honest broker, even though there's no one to replace us ... The concept of a tsunami of democracy (in the Middle East) is done for. I think that's ended, particularly when the world realizes that the first two democratically elected entities — Hamas and Hezbollah — that we have been providing the weaponry [to Israel ] to take them down."

If a movement has US blessings does it become legitimate and even moral! Many such groups which US led West, Saudi Arabia and other Sheikhdoms in the Gulf and even the Chinese , together financed ,trained and provided arms directly and indirectly with Pakistani military intelligence , against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan , became Jihadis and just terrorists. It is another matter that the blowback climaxed in 911 attacks on USA and other attacks against western interests. Left behind to fester in Afghanistan and Pakistan , they continue to create mayhem in Pakistan , Afghanistan , India and elsewhere.

What about the various Kurdish militias/guerillas in areas under US protection since 1991 and even the PKK ,fighting against Turkey since 1984 and now ensconced in north Iraq under US control .In spite of promises US has done little to disarm or inhibit PKK activities inside south eastern Turkey. And then of course there are US allies in Iraq with their Dawa and other militias led by Moqtda-As Sadr , which unlike the militias or Jihadis in Afghanistan are Shias like Hezbollah .Some double standards .Loose talk of ' spreading liberty and democracy' by western leaders have thoroughly prostituted these words. George Bush even had the gall to recommend democracy as in Iraq ( where in a raging civil war , in Baghdad alone a hundred Iraqis a day were killed in July ) as a model to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a press conference in St Petersburg .It only aroused mirth and cynical laughter . Americans deserve better leadership.

The Hezbollah–IDF stand off
Israeli ministers recalled that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's aides joked about the possibility that he would make a victory speech in Bint Jubail, the site of Nasrallah's speech after Israeli withdrawal in May 2000. It was at Bint Jubail on 26 July ,2006 that the Hezbollah repulsed the best of Israeli commandos with dozens dead and tanks destroyed . But the mere fact that it was discussed is an indication of how surrealistic the conversations in Israel became among decision makers ie the belief in their Biblical Samson like powers .

Said an expert ,"Apparently Hezbollah had done its homework and read the Israeli handbook—in Hebrew and was well-prepared for such a predictable approach[ an all out attack against abduction of Israeli soldiers ]. Indeed, the failure to disrupt Hezbollah's field communications and authority arguably delayed Israeli ground operations and later led to their relative ineffectiveness. "

Hezbollah fighters fought off the modern Israeli Defence Forces (IDF ), the most well equipped in the region, for a month in the hills of southern Lebanon because of its resilience based on extraordinary zeal and secrecy, rigorous military training and discipline, and a steady flow of effective weaponry.

"They are the best guerrilla force in the world," said a Lebanese specialist who has sifted through intelligence on Hezbollah for more than two decades and strongly opposes the movement. They fight like fish in water. "We are not a regular army and we will not fight like a regular army," says Hezbollah.

Based in their own villages Hezbollah protects its own people and land in south Lebanon .The underground bunkers constructed in secret since Israeli withdrawal in 2000 , withstood a withering Israeli air campaign and tank-led ground assaults could not establish control over a border strip or sweep it clear of Hezbollah guerrillas -- one of Israel's main declared war aims. In fact IDF attempts to conquer Bint Jubail , were repeatedly repulsed with stunning loss of the best of IDF commandos .Other attempts to take land from Hezbollah were beaten back too .

Their Islamic faith and intense indoctrination reduces their fear of death, giving Hezbollah an advantage in close-quarters combat. Hezbollah leaders also enhanced fighters' willingness to risk death by establishing the Martyr's Institute, that guarantees living stipends and education fees for the families of fighters who die on the front.

"If you are waiting for a white flag coming out of the Hezbollah bunker, I can assure you it won't come," Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, a member of the Israeli army's General staff, said in a briefing for reporters in the northern Israeli village of Gosherim. "They are extremists, they will go all the way."

Hezbollah's military leadership have carefully studied military history, including the Vietnam War, a Lebanese expert said, and set up a training program with help from Iranian intelligence and Revolutionary Guards with years of experience in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. The training was matched with weapons that proved effective against Israeli tanks, including the famed Merkava main battle tank with advanced armor plating. The majority of Israeli combat deaths resulted from missile hits on armored vehicles -- or on buildings where Israeli soldiers set up observation posts or conducted searches.

The antitank missiles could be dragged easily out of caches and quickly fired with two- or three-man launching teams at distances of 3,200 yards or more from their targets. One of the most effective was the Russian-designed Sagger 2, a wire-guided missile with a range of 550 to 3,200 yards. In one hidden bunker, Israeli soldiers discovered night-vision camera equipment connected to computers that fed coordinates of targets to the Sagger 2 missile, according to Israeli military officials

As antitank missiles could also be used to attack helicopters, it limited IDF's use of choppers in rescues and other operations.. Hezbollah shot down a CH-53 Sikorsky helicopter, killing all five crew members as admitted by IDF . But Hezbollah claimed more hits.

It is some irony that the Iraq- Iran war of 1980s trained the Iraqis who are leading the resistance against US led occupation and Iranians forged in that same war , the Iranian revolutionary guards were instrumental in establishing and training Hezbollah. Tehran's assistance to Hamas today follows a similar pattern

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

To give a taste of their own medicine Hezbollah continued to fire rockets against north Israeli towns and villages, specially its port and holiday resort of Haifa , its third largest city until the ceasefire . In spite of usual lies by western media , Hezbollah started sending rockets and missiles into north Israel only after Israel began its attack on Lebanese cities and villages including on civilians and infrastructure .Nasrallah offered to stop if IDF did like wise.

Hezbollah arsenal including thousands of missiles and rockets fired ( estimated to be up to 15, 000 but none is sure ) was paid for by relentless fundraising among Shias around the world and funds provided by Iran. For the 1980s 'Jihad' against Russians in Afghanistan ,not only Sunni Saudi Arabia and other Kingdoms and Muslim countries and individuals , but most western countries led by USA , even China contributed up to a whopping sum of US $ 6-10 billions.

Shia Islam , which evolved and blossomed in Persia was ruled by Arabs, Turks, Mongols and Tartars for eight-and-half centuries, before the emergence of the Sufi-origin Persian Safavids, who became finally masters of their own land, Iran. During the period of foreign occupation and domination , mostly by Sunni rulers , to preserve their sect and survive, Iranians and Shias have developed an uncanny ability not to bring to their lips what is on their minds, and have institutionalized it as takiyya, ie dissimulation.

In earlier Muslim period ,most of Shia Imams were harassed , tormented and even assassinated .Imam Hussein who died for the righteous cause at Karbala remains the martyr par excellence and a shining example. In Lebanon , a sense of solidarity against others among Shias has been there since their beginning as a political force in the mid-1970s, when their first organization was called the 'Movement of the Deprived'. They are like 'Dalits' (Untouchables ) in Hindu apartheid like caste system ..Calls by other Lebanese to disarm Hezbollah were motivated more by a desire to prevent it from becoming powerful political party than bringing more ruin from Israeli attacks, or to prevent it from aligning it with Syria and Iran. Hezbollah took birth and was nurtured by the brutal Israeli occupation of south Lebanon for two decades.

One story about Syria's ruling Shia Alawaites ( 12% of population ) , who were also poor and deprived , is that only the looked down upon military career as foot soldiers was open to them in 1940s and 1950s , when politics, trade and industry were cornered by majority Sunni population .Soon the Alawaites progressed to sergeants level and when there were enough of them as generals they took over in 1960s and continue to rule , with power sharing with other Muslims in a secular set up .Similarly in neighbouring Iraq , when it became independent after the collapse of the Sunni Ottoman empire after the first world war, the former Iraqi Sunni Ottoman elite took over . but the Baathists were secular . Ignorant and arrogant Neo-cons have created living hell in Iraq , but the main beneficiary of the ouster of Saddam Hussein is Iran, providing Tehran with inroads into the heart of Iraqi politics at the social, military, and religious levels. Today's Iran policy is to tolerate 'controlled chaos' as long as the US appears to favor regime change in Iran.

Of course US had invaded Iraq against the UN Charter and against the wishes of the world community for oil as I have written in my essay ;'Mother of all battles , for oil .A battle by Anglo-Saxons to control oil for their benefit continues its blood strewn path.

Dissensions in Israel;
Unlike western media specially in USA , which like its politicians across the political spectrum , are dead scared of criticising Israel or its policies and are openly controlled by the Israeli lobby in USA, Israeli media is relatively free , specially newspapers like Haaretz .

Reporter Nahum Barnea, who traveled with an Israeli military unit in south Lebanon, compared the battle to "the famous Tom and Jerry cartoons" with the powerful Israeli military playing the role of the cat Tom and the resourceful Hezbollah guerrillas playing the mouse Jerry. "In every conflict between them, Jerry wins," Barnea wrote. One Israeli plan to use llamas to deliver supplies in the rugged terrain of south Lebanon turned into an embarrassment when the animals simply sat down.

Israeli newspapers and people, led to believe in quick decimation of Hezbollah and a victory faster than the 6 day war of 1967 , have been stunned at the failure and are full of complaints against their political and military leaders asking them to resign and be punished .

Soldiers say that some reservists weren't even issued body armor while other soldiers found their equipment either inferior or inappropriate for the battlefield conditions. One of the petitions circulated and signed by the reserve Spearhead Brigade IDF , just back from the fighting in Lebanon said , "The 'cold feet' of the decision-makers were evident everywhere . " "To us the indecisiveness expressed deep disrespect for our willingness to join the ranks and fight and made us feel as though we had been spat at, since it contradicts the principles and values of warfare upon which we were trained at the Israel Defense Forces.

"The heavy feeling is that in the echelons above us there is nothing but under-preparation, insincerity, lack of foresight and inability to make rational decisions leads to the question [we] were we called up for nothing?"

Channel 2 in Israel disclosed that several top military commanders wrote a letter to Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, the chief of staff, criticizing the war planning as chaotic and out of line with the combat training of the soldiers and officers. The outgoing Chief Infantry and Paratroopers Officer of the Israel Defense Forces, Brigadier General Yossi Heiman, became the first senior officer to concede a degree of failure in the Lebanon war. "We were guilty of the sin of arrogance."

Wrote Uri Avnery , an Israeli writer and peace activist that the strategic and tactical command of Hezbollah was decidedly better than that of Israeli army (IDF). All along, IDF strategy was primitive, brutal and unsophisticated.

" Clearly, Hezbollah has prepared well for this war - while the Israeli command has prepared for a quite different war. On the level of individual fighters, the Hezbollah are not inferior to our soldiers, neither in bravery nor in initiative. Halutz with the bluster of an Air-Force officer believed that it was possible to crush Hezbollah by aerial bombardment, supplemented by artillery shelling from land and sea. He believed that if he destroyed the towns, neighborhoods, roads and ports of Lebanon, the Lebanese people would rise and compel their government to remove Hezbollah. For a week he killed and devastated, until it became clear to everybody that this method achieves the opposite - strengthens Hezbollah, weakens its opponents within Lebanon and throughout the Arab world and destroys the world-wide sympathy Israel enjoyed at the beginning of the war.

"When he reached this point, Halutz did not know what to do next. For three weeks he sent his soldiers into Lebanon on senseless and hopeless missions, gaining nothing. Even in the battles that were fought in villages right on the border, no significant victories were achieved. After the fourth week, when he was requested to submit a plan to the government, it was unbelievably primitive.

"If the "enemy" had been a regular army, it would have been a bad plan. Just pushing the enemy back is hardly a strategy at all. But when the other side is a guerilla force, this is simply foolish. It may cause the death of many soldiers, for no practical result.

Written at the time of the UN ceasefire ( which Bush and Tony Blair inhumanly delayed to give IDF time to inflict damage on Lebanon , mostly by killing civilians and destruction of Lebanon's infrastructure on which the debts incurred on re-construction after the long civil war ignited by Israel have still not been paid , Avnery writes;

"Now he [Halutz] is trying to achieve a token victory, occupying empty space as far from the border as possible, after the UN has already called for an end to the hostilities. (As in almost all previous Israeli wars, this call is being ignored, in the hope of snatching some gains at the last moment.) Behind this line, Hezbollah remains intact in their bunkers. There were some talented officers, but the general picture is of a senior officers corps that is mediocre or worse, grey and unoriginal. Almost all the many officers that have appeared on TV are unimpressive, uninspiring professionals, experts on covering their behinds, repeating empty clichés like parrots.

"The ex-generals, who have been crowding out everybody else in the TV and radio studios, have also mostly surprised us with their mediocrity, limited intelligence and general ignorance. One gets the impression that they have not read books on military history, and fill the void with empty phrases.

 

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"The intelligence was completely unaware of the defense system built by Hezbollah in South Lebanon. The complex infrastructure of hidden bunkers, stocked with modern equipment and stockpiles of food and weapons was a complete surprise for the army. It was not ready for these bunkers, including those built two or three kilometers from the border. They are reminiscent of the tunnels in Vietnam."

Samson seduced by Phistine [Palestinian] softness ;

As for Israeli intelligence "it has also been corrupted by the long occupation of the Palestinian territories. They have got used to relying on the thousands of collaborators that have been recruited in the course of 39 years by torture, bribery and extortion (junkies needing drugs, someone begging to be allowed to visit his dying mother, someone desiring a chunk from the cake of corruption, etc.) Clearly, no collaborators were found among the Hezbollah, and without them intelligence is blind.

" The Merkava ("carriage") tank is the pride of the army. Its father, General Israel Tal, a victorious tank general, did not want only to build the world's most advanced tank, but also a tank that provided its crew with the best possible protection. Now it appears that an anti-tank weapon from the late 1980s that is available in large quantities, can disable the tank, killing or grievously wounding the soldiers inside,"

After the ceasefire was concluded ( but broken by IDF commando raids in Bekka valley on 20 August ) Uri Avney said that the results of the war were obvious:

* The prisoners, who served as casus belli (or pretext) for the war, have not been released. They will come back only as a result of an exchange of prisoners, exactly as Hassan Nasrallah proposed before the war.

* Hezbollah has remained as it was. It has not been destroyed, nor disarmed, nor even removed from where it was. Its fighters have proved themselves in battle and have even garnered compliments from Israeli soldiers. Its command and communication structure has continued to function to the end. Its TV station is still broadcasting.

* Hassan Nasrallah is alive and kicking. Persistent attempts to kill him failed. His prestige is sky-high. Everywhere in the Arab world, from Morocco to Iraq, songs are being composed in his honor and his picture adorns the walls.

* The Lebanese army will be deployed along the border, side by side with a large international force. That is the only material change that has been achieved.

Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington;

Helena Cobban commented on 18 August in her website on a study titled 'Preliminary Lessons of Israeli-Hezbollah War' by Anthony Cordesman, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, a well known Middle East strategic affairs analyst for US media who was invited by the American Jewish Committee on a "insider" trip to Israel (Who paid ?) to meet senior Israeli officers . His most notable finding appears to be that no serving Israeli official, intelligence officer, or other military officer felt that the Hezbollah acted under the direction of Iran or Syria.

Cordesman stated that Israel had five objectives in going to war:

• Destroy the "Iranian Western Command" [I guess this is a reference to Hezbollah's military capabilities?] before Iran could go nuclear.

• Restore the credibility of Israeli deterrence after the unilateral withdrawals from Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005, and countering the image that Israel was weak and forced to leave.

• Force Lebanon to become and act as an accountable state, and end the status of Hezbollah as a state within a state.

• Damage or cripple Hezbollah, with the understanding that it could not be destroyed as a military force and would continue to be a major political actor in Lebanon. [Yes, well, that was fallback position for them, wasn't it. In the first few days, there was lots of rhetoric about "destroying" Hezbollah's military capability.]

• Bring the two soldiers the Hezbollah had captured back alive without major trades in prisoners held by Israel—not the thousands demanded by Nasrallah and the Hezbollah.

Cordesman then goes on to make cleverly obfuscating judgments about what Israel actually "achieved" in each of these five areas... though the bottom line in each case was still "not very much, at all."

Israel left facing 20 questions posed by Aluf Benn in Haaretz;

1. How and why did Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decide to go to war in response to the Hezbollah attack and the abduction of two soldiers on July 12th? Who participated in the decision-making and which criteria were taken into account?

2. Did anyone consider the possibility of holding negotiations with Hezbollah over a prisoner exchange? Was the assessment that the IDF operation would pressure Hezbollah to release the abducted soldiers, with nothing in return?

3. Why wasn't the event where Hassan Nasrallah spoke bombed the same day? Was the possibility considered?

4. Why was the Vice Premier mocked at the cabinet meeting when he asked about the stages following the military operation?

5. Did Chief of Staff Dan Halutz give political leaders the impression that an air offensive would suffice to achieve the goals of the war (releasing the prisoners, deploying Lebanese forces in the south and disarming Hezbollah)?

6. What did Olmert and Amir Peretz know about the levels of IDF preparedness for a confrontation with Hezbollah before they decided on war? Were they warned of the shortcomings of the army and the home front?

7. Why was the state of alert lifted at the Northern Command on the eve of the Hezbollah attack? What was wrong with the way in which the force reacted to an attack by Hezbollah on July 12th?

8. Why did intelligence fail to locate the hide-out of Hezbollah's leadership?

9. Why was the IDF surprised by Hezbollah's anti-ship cruise missiles? And why were the defense systems of its advanced warship turned off during a mission off the Lebanese coast?

10. What intelligence was there on Hezbollah's advanced anti-tank missiles and were tactics developed to counter them?

11. What intelligence was there on the Hezbollah order of battle and was this passed on to the Northern Command?

12. Was the air force ordered to target homes near rocket-launching sites and, as a result, struck civilians in Qana on July 30th?

13. Were restrictions lifted on air force targeting, and did this cause further civilian casualties?

14. How was Israel dragged into a halting ground offensive in Lebanon, who ordered it and what were political leadership's aims and considerations?

15. Why was Bint Jubail targeted? Was it a PR exercise? What did we know about Hezbollah forces there?

16. Prior to the decision to go to war, did anyone raise the possibility that Hezbollah would be able to fire 100-200 rockets on a daily basis into the North, for a month?

17. Who was responsible for taking care of the population in the North prior to and during the war? Why was no orderly evacuation prepared?

18. How were reservist units deployed with insufficient logistical support?

19. What did the Prime Minister mean in his speech on August 1st that the achievements in the war were "unprecedented"?

20. Why did Olmert and Peretz decide to expand the ground offensive on Friday - a decision that cost the lives of many and damaged Israel's image abroad - just as the Security Council approved the cease-fire resolution?

Israelis , and all their leaders have time to ponder till the next war .It will come . But first the elections and the return of Bibi Netanyahu , the new Likud leader ,unless there are birth pangs of a new Israeli internal churning .

World Council of Churches accuses Israel of premeditated attack ;

Israel's assault on Lebanon was planned even before Hezbollah abducted the soldiers and was aimed at driving a wedge between the different faiths that have been living in harmony in the country, a delegation from the World Council of Churches (WCC) said on their return from a visit to Beirut and Jerusalem ( but not received by the Israeli government ). The WCC represents 348 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church.

As for the abduction of Israeli soldiers, the first media reports suggested that the incident took place in the Lebanese territory .It was later changed to Israeli territory with full support from corporate news networks and print media of the west. Lies and spins is a hoary western tradition.

K Gajendra Singh, served as Indian Ambassador to Turkey and Azerbaijan in1992 -96. Prior to that, he served as ambassador to Jordan (during the1990 - 91Gulf war), Romania and Senegal. He is currently chairman of the Foundation for Indo-Turkic Studies. The views expressed here are his own.-

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