War in Lebanon off the proverbial table

Israel's defense establishment estimates that Hizbullah has succesfully rearmed after the 2006 war.

Barak said at Labor's faction meeting Thursday that Resolution 1701 is gradually being eroded and Hezbollah "has doubled and perhaps tripled the quantity of its missiles." ...... On Wednesday, members of the security cabinet were told Hezbollah has an arsenal of 40,000 rockets ready to be fired at Israel, three times more than at the start of the Second Lebanon War. (Haaretz, July 11th, 2008)

Take into consideration the significant gains in Hizbullah's political fortunes and 2006 is shaping to be Israel's most complete defeat. The most damaging aspect of the defeat for Israel is that the war was a setback for Western colonialism as a whole. The military junta is itching for an opportunity to erase the shame of that fiasco. But it would be very difficult to find politicians as suicidal as Olmert and Peretz were at the time. Israeli politicians may not be big on foresight, but their hindsight is still 20/20. I believe war in South Lebanon is off the table for a while. Bless all the brave and hard working folks who take part in the smuggling of arms into Lebanon.


Trust Israel to whine about non-compliance with this or that Security Council resolution.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak Thursday warned of the repercussions of the weapons smuggling, which he said are in violation of Security Council Resolution 1701 that led to the ending of the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

Because Israel is such a stickler for international law.

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Haaretz has this from Olmert:

"Everybody knows that Nasrallah is afraid confronting Israel," the premier told the Nazareth-based Arabic language newspaper A-Sinara. "He's scared to death."....Olmert said one important outcome of the war is the removal of the threat of rocket fire from southern Lebanon against the towns of the Galilee.

In the name of mercy, hold your chuckles!