Warning: This is a long post that consist of two news opinion essayes!
Hezbollah 2, Israel 0
by Joanna FrancisMake no mistake about it - the Israelis are getting their tails kicked in Lebanon! Just like they did in May 2000, when Hezbollah sent them scurrying back across the border with their tails between their legs. The Israelis never forgot that stinging defeat and have now demanded a rematch with Hezbollah. And much to their surprise, Israel has already managed to lose the rematch too. Considering the disparity in numbers and weaponry between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel should have achieved a decisive victory by now. But they haven’t. And it doesn’t help their case any that they have had to resort to bombing the entire country, killing women and children, to try to save face. It only makes them look more pathetic. They will never be able to swagger quite so arrogantly again, or instill fear in the groveling leaders of their neighboring countries in quite the same way. The Israelis have been outfoxed at every turn by an irregular army using prehistoric weaponry, with little to no support from neighboring countries (the leaders, that is), but who have proven themselves to be unwavering in their determination. Hezbollah are fighting against the best weaponry American money can buy. And they are winning.
Because you can’t buy courage. Even with the entire United States treasury at your disposal, the things that matter most to real men simply cannot be purchased. Therefore, the poor man has the advantage over the rich man because valor, manliness, and honor are free to those with nothing to lose. The Israelis had everything to lose in this misguided operation and have proceeded to do so exceedingly well. Even among their most brainwashed sycophants, their credibility is in the single digits. The excuse of the "kidnapped" soldiers is totally bogus to anyone with an I.Q. over 70, because Hezbollah has offered to release them in exchange for a ceasefire but Israel has refused. Meanwhile, Israel has kidnapped thousands of Lebanese citizens over the years who languish in Israeli prisons to this day. And the Katyusha rocket pity party won’t work either, because the Katyusha rockets are simply in retaliation for Israeli aggression, not vice versa, and can hardly compare to the bombs being dropped on Lebanon. If they thought for one moment that they would rout out Hezbollah, they were seriously mistaken. You cannot eliminate a fighting force whose reason for existence is justified by the fact that Israel continues to occupy their land, invade their air space, and hold their people as political prisoners. Kill them all, and another generation will simply step up to the plate and take their place.
The Israelis fight like sissies from fighter jets, dropping bunker-buster bombs on defenseless women and children. That’s real manly! They roll across the border in heavily-armored tanks, confident that they’ll be impervious to Hezbollah’s weaker arsenal. Only lately, those tanks have had the surprising habit of turning into human crematoria for the Israeli soldiers inside them. So why don’t they get out of their tanks and fighter jets and go toe-to-toe with Hezbollah like real men? (See first sentence of essay). The fourth most powerful military in the world has been given a shiny black eye that no amount of make-up will ever be able to hide. The aura of invincibility they so haughtily projected is now tarnished beyond repair. Bragging rights go to Hezbollah, as Israel eats its long-overdue humble pie. Why do I feel so strongly about this, you might ask? Because Israel has made me, an American taxpayer, complicit in their war crimes, and I, for one, am glad to see them finally getting their comeuppance.In fact, the Israelis are losing so badly that their co-religionists in the West have had to order new false flag operations to take their humiliating defeat off the front pages. It’s like that scene in the Wizard of Oz where Toto pulls back the curtain on the "Great Oz," only to discover that he’s really a weaselly old man, pretending to be something that he’s not. Well, the curtain has been pulled back on the Zionists, and they are standing there in all their naked cowardice and cruelty, for all world to see. And the world is repulsed. Hence, the PR campaign now underway to try to remind us goyim that all Muslims are "terrorists" and that the Israelis are always the victims. So now we’re supposed to feel relieved that the Israelis are only killing "terrorists" (not human beings), and that they are only trying to make the world a safer place for all of us. Only it’s not going to work this time. I mean, how stupid do they think we are? Just when world sympathy was leaning heavily towards Lebanon and away from Israel, does any sane person really believe that Muslims would try to pull off an ill-fated stunt? Only the most credulous of FOX News watchers could fail to notice that the timing of these supposed terror plots is extraordinarily convenient.
The mainstream media is just another weapon in the Israeli armory, but this time, chinks are beginning to show. The Zionist-controlled media try their best to obfuscate the cowardice of their own kin by wrongly portraying Hezbollah as hiding behind women and children. In psychiatry (a dangerous medical specialty they invented), this is called "projection," or the attempt to transfer your own negative traits onto another person. They know all about projection because they do it so well. But Israel cannot hide the fact that they have slaughtered more than 1,000 civilians, mostly women and children, and have destroyed almost the entire infrastructure of a modern, democratic state. Yet they cynically try to portray themselves as reluctant and contrite killers, in a grotesque attempt to blame innocent victims for their own deaths.
What did they think was going to happen when they plunked themselves down in the middle of a million Arabs, after slaughtering them to steal their land in 1948? Did they really think they would get away with it indefinitely? Obviously so, since they’ve now set out to conquer more sovereign Arab territory, fully revealing their expansionist agenda to anyone with eyes to see. Only something unexpected has happened on the way to Eretz Israel; they’ve run into a brick wall called Hezbollah, who will not relinquish their sovereignty to the Zionist land-grabbers.
It’s slowly starting to dawn on the Zionists that Lebanon will never be part of Eretz Israel, and that the Litani River will never provide drinking water to Israeli settler households. Plan "Eretz Israel" has been put on hold by a small Lebanese militia with more guts than most men can even dream about. In any area that counts, Hezbollah is already victorious. Courage? How brave do you have to be to stay and fight when you are out-numbered, out-gunned, out-tanked, and out-bombed? Very brave, indeed. This war was nothing more than an Israeli land-grab attempt, and an opportunity to exercise collective punishment on an entire people for Israel’s defeat at the hands of Hezbollah in May 2000. But the Israeli soldiers aren’t half the fighters Hezbollah are; hence, their second defeat in six years at the hands of their bitter enemies. Hezbollah now owns them - lock, stock and barrel.
What the Hell Has Happened To The Israeli Army?
by UriAvnerySO WHAT has happened to the Israeli army?
This question is now being raised not only around the world, but also in Israel itself. Clearly, there is a huge gap between the army's boastful arrogance, on which generations of Israelis have grown up, and the picture presented by this war.
Before the choir of generals utters their expected cries of being stabbed in the back - "The government has shackled our hands! The politicians did not allow the army to win!
The political leadership is to blame for everything!" - it is worthwhile to examine this war from a professional military point of view.
(It is, perhaps, appropriate to interject at this point a personal remark. Who am I to speak about strategic matters?
What am I, a general? Well - I was 16 years old when World War II broke out. I decided then to study military theory in order to be able to follow events. I read a few hundred books - from Sun Tzu to Clausewitz to Liddel-Hart and on.
Later, in the 1948 war, I saw the other side of the medal, as a soldier and squad-leader. I have written two books on the war. That does not make me a great strategist, but it does allow me to voice an informed opinion.)
The facts speak for themselves:
- On the 32nd day of the war, Hizbullah is still standing and fighting. That by itself is a stunning feat: a small guerilla organization, with a few thousand fighters, is standing up to one of the strongest armies in the world and has not been broken after a month of "pulverizing". Since 1948, the armies of Egypt, Syria and Jordan have repeatedly been beaten in wars that were much shorter.
As I have already said: if a light-weight boxer is fighting a heavy-weight champion and is still standing in the 12th round, the victory is his - whatever the count of points says.
- In the test of results - the only one that counts in war
- the strategic and tactical command of Hizbullah is decidedly better than that of our own army. All along, our army's strategy has been primitive, brutal and unsophisticated.
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- Clearly, Hizbullah has prepared well for this war - while the Israeli command has prepared for a quite different war.
- On the level of individual fighters, the Hizbullah are not inferior to our soldiers, neither in bravery nor in initiative.
THE MAIN guilt for the failure belongs with General Dan Halutz. I say "guilt" and not merely "responsibility", which comes with the job.
He is living proof of the fact that an inflated ego and a brutal attitude are not enough to create a competent Chief- of-Staff. The opposite may be true.
Halutz gained fame (or notoriety) when he was asked what he feels when he drops a one-ton bomb on a residential quarter and answered: "a slight bang on the wing." He added that afterwards he sleeps well at night. (In the same interview he also called me and my friends "traitors" who should be prosecuted.)
Now it is already clear - again, in the test of results - that Dan Halutz is the worst Chief-of-Staff in the annals of the Israeli army, a completely incompetent officer for his job.
Recently he has changed his blue Air-Force uniform for the green one of the land army. Too late.
Halutz started this war with the bluster of an Air-Force officer. He believed that it was possible to crush Hizbullah 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 Hizbullah. For a week he killed and devastated, until it became clear to everybody that this method achieves the opposite - strengthens Hizbullah, 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.
Now he 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, Hizbullah remains intact in their bunkers.HOWEVER, THE Chief-of-Staff does not act in a vacuum. As Commander-in-Chief he has indeed a huge influence, but he is also merely the top of the military pyramid.
This war casts a dark shadow on the whole upper echelon of our army. I assume that there are 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 clich?s 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.
More than once it has been said in this column that an army that has been acting for many years as a colonial police force against the Palestinian population - "terrorists", women and children - and spending its time running after stone-throwing boys, cannot remain an efficient army. The test of results confirms this.
AS AFTER every failure of our military, the intelligence community is quick to cover its ass. Their chiefs declare that they knew everything, that they provided the troops with full and accurate information, that they are not to blame if the army did not act on it.
That does not sound reasonable. Judging from the reactions of the commanders in the field, they clearly were completely unaware of the defense system built by Hizbullah 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.
The intelligence community 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 Hizbullah, and without them intelligence is blind.
It is also clear that Intelligence, and the army in general, was not ready for the deadly efficiency of Hizbullah's anti-tank weapons. Hard to believe, but according to official figures, more than 20 tanks were hit.
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.
THE COMMON denominator of all the failures is the disdain for Arabs, a contempt that has dire consequences. It has caused total misunderstanding, a kind of blindness of Hizbullah's motives, attitudes, standing in Lebanese society etc.
I am convinced that today's soldiers are in no way inferior to their predecessors. Their motivation is high, they have shown great bravery in the evacuation of the wounded under fire. (I very much appreciate that in particular, since my own life was saved by soldiers who risked theirs to get me out under fire when I was wounded.) But the best soldiers cannot succeed when the command is incompetent.
History teaches that defeat can be a great blessing for an army. A victorious army rests on its laurels, it has no motive for self-criticism, it degenerates, its commanders become careless and lose the next war. (see: the Six-day war leading to the Yom Kippur war). A defeated army, on the other side, knows that it must rehabilitate itself. On one condition: that it admits defeat.
After this war, the Chief-of-Staff must be dismissed and the senior officer corps overhauled. For that, a Minister of Defense is needed who is not a marionette of the Chief- of-Staff. (But that concerns the political leadership, about whose failures and sins we shall speak another time.)
We, as people of peace, have a great interest in changing the military leadership. First, because it has a huge impact on the forming of policy and, as we just saw, irresponsible commanders can easily drag the government into dangerous adventures. And second, because even after achieving peace we shall need an efficient army - at least until the wolf lies down with the lamb, as the prophet Isaiah promised. (And not in the Israeli version: "No problem. One only has to bring a new lamb every day.")
THE MAIN lesson of the war, beyond all military analysis, lies in the five words we inscribed on our banner from the very first day: "There is no military solution!"
Even a strong army cannot defeat a guerilla organization, because the guerilla is a political phenomenon. Perhaps the opposite is true: the stronger the army, the better equipped with advanced technology, the smaller are its chances of winning such a confrontation. Our conflict - in the North, the Center and the South - is a political conflict, and can only be resolved by political means. The army is the instrument worst suited for that.
The war has proved that Hizbullah is a strong opponent, and any political solution in the North must include it. Since Syria is its strong ally, it must also be included. The settlement must be worthwhile for them too, otherwise it will not last.
The price is the return of the Golan Heights.
What is true in the North is also true in the South. The army will not defeat the Palestinians, because such a victory is altogether impossible. For the good of the army, it must be extricated from the quagmire.
If that now enters the consciousness of the Israeli public, something good may yet have come out of this war.
Contextually Related posts:
I looked up Joanna Francis and what an amazing thing I found. She is a member of a group called the Crescent and the Cross which is a solidarity movement between Muslims and Christians. She is TRULY a woman after my own heart and THANK YOU Haitham for bringing her to us here. Here is an excert from their home page:
Christianity and Islam are not at war with each other. There is nothing about them that makes them organically opposed to each other. In fact, they have more in common with each other than they do with any other of the world?s faiths. Besides Christianity, Islam is the only other religion that recognizes Jesus. It is the only other religion that gives honor to his mother Mary. Both Muslims and Christians believe that Jesus was the Messiah that was promised to come, and both faiths believe that he will return towards the end of time for the purpose of defeating AntiChrist and of sitting in judgment of the living and the dead. And, more importantly, they both are, in their true forms, universal in their scope and do not adhere to any supremacist themes.
The present conflict between the two religions is an artificial conflict that has been deliberately constructed by a third party who stands to benefit from the two religions wiping each other out. This third party is the Zionist agenda that is using a ?divide and conquer? strategy and done with the interests of seeing that in the end the Jewish supremacist agenda reins over the world and its inhabitants. Zionism is an expansive, aggressive ideology steeped in racial supremacist themes. The ?chosen people? (as Jewish supremacists term themselves) believe that they have been blessed by God with the task of subduing the whole world to their agenda, and the current war in the Middle East is a major component in seeing this madman?s dream fulfilled.
I would highly recommend looking up this organization at
http://www.crescentandcross.com/index.php?page=about_us
Joanna, I AGREE WITH YOU!!! (And I like your “mouthy” sentiments too!)
As an Iranian I am proud of the fact that Iranian-made weapons were used to defend Lebanese soil. Olmert is trying to claim a victory, but the truth is, he got a run for his money in Lebanon, and it looks like Israel bit a little more than it could chew this time. Hezbollah put up a good fight, and showed the world the cowards that Israelis are. Instead of fighting man-to-man, soldier-to-soldier, they killed 900 Lebanese civilians, most of them women, children and elderly. I have a Lebanese friend who is not even Shi’a, he is Roum (Greek) Orthodox, and he is a BIG Hezbollah supporter, and to him Nasrallah is a Lebanese hero. He is proud of being Lebanese thanks to Nasrallah, whom he considers a Lebanese hero. Do you know that 900 civilians in a country like Lebanon which has only 3.5 million people is the equivalent of ten 9/11′s? Do not worry, Lebanon, Iran will help you rebuild and rise out of your ashes again, and the world has seen the true, ugly face of Israel, a country which has no regard for international law, and feels it is above everything, even above U.N. resolutions. The Lebanese have still not forgotten the 1982 bombing of Lebanon and its capital city by Ariel Sharon, the Butcher of Beirut. Olmert’s crimes against Lebanon and humanity in general have once again brought those old memories back. No Lebanese will ever forget or forgive how Israel destroyed an entire nation, ruined its infrastructure, terrorized and brutalized its entire population, violated its sovereignty, destroyed the very fabric of life by bombing food shelters, humanitarian-aid convoys, power plants, and blocked all kinds of relief efforts.
On one hand Israel was dropping leaflets telling people to evacuate (just to score points in the international media), on the other it made every effort to make sure evacuation was impossible by destroying highways, roads, bridges, trucks carrying refugees (claiming they were carrying arms for Hezbollah, a ridiculous claim) knowing full well the impoverished citizens of S. Lebanon did not possess cars with which they could “get out of town” with (and even if they did, where would they go to when all roads and highways are either destroyed or surrounded by Israeli troops? Israel did not even stop short of a full naval blockade of Lebanon. Thousands of Lebanese civilians were trapped in their towns and villages (then later Israel dropped more leaflets, this time warning Lebanese civilians to stay home after 3 p.m.)…so I guess this meant if you’re not lucky enough to get out of town before 3p.m. you’re fair game…if you’re out on the street you’re a moving target, so the message is stay home and be a sitting duck for the next Israeli air-raid, and just hope and pray your house won’t crumble down on top of you when Israel drops those bombs on your town or village.
Why is Israel doing all this? For the same reason a dog licks its behind. Because it can. There is nobody to hold Israel accountable, nobody to stop its bloody rampages and savage incursions, no one to challenge its terror. Might makes right after all, and there is always that guaranteed U.S. veto in the Security Council to bail Israel out.
Then the stupid question, ” Why is Iran giving Hezbollah missiles?”
How about this question? Why is the USA giving ISRAEL missiles, and long-range ones that can reach Iran? Even with all the Iranian-supplied missiles, there is no parity in this war. Hezbollah has no air power, no Apache helicopters, no F-16 fighter jets, and certainly nothing comparable to Israel’s sophisticated and highly upgraded tanks. This is a small group of resistance fighters taking on a powerful army, fully equipped with American-supplied weapons. It is a lightweight boxing champion daring to take on an aggressive, bullyish heavyweight.
No matter what happens, Israel will walk away with a bloody nose and a black eye, compliments of a small group of brave men defending their country. As for Lebanon, aid is pouring in from all over the world, and other countries will come to her rescue in her hour of need, and help her rebuild. Iranians stand by their Lebanese brethren, as they always have.
Joanna, your reference to the Wizard of Oz reminded me of something else as well…remember the tin man with no heart, the scarecrow with no brains, and the lion with no courage? The Israeli army chiefs are the tin man, the scarecrow and the lion all rolled into one: no heart, no brains, and no courage.
Hezbollah the David, taught Israel the Goliath a lesson they will never forget. As an Iranian I cannot tell you how proud I am that Iran was a part of that, even if indirectly. But the true credit goes to the Lebanese people themselves: they did the fighting and the resisting, never letting the powerful Israeli army break their spirit, or make their resilience wane. Israel tried, and lost.
I am not worried about Lebanon, since the Lebanese people have a tough skin: they have endured not only a long drawn out civil war that began in the ’70s, they endured Israel’s 1982 rape of their country and all the devastation it brought. Yet once again, the brave Lebanese people picked up the pieces and rose again. This time, Sunni, Shi’ite, Maronite, Melkite, Greek Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Druze and other sects are uniting behind a common banner, always being Lebanese first, and standing by those who defend their country against foreign invaders like Israel.
After all the destruction and casualities on both sides(though Lebanon bear the most) mideast is back to square one: fearfull Israeli against angry Arabs the only addition is a new spike of hate and ressentment !!!
it is another bad refelection on our current world order that deosn’t impose settlement on both sides as it is clearly evident that both parties are not willing to overcome their highly charged positions. the obvious solution is for Arabs to understand that Israel is there to stay and for Israeli leave the Arabs live with dignity in thei lands specifically in Palastine.
Hamid, Arabs have been alot more practical than you give them credit for, and do not have an issue accepting Israel as a reality, albeit an unfortunate one. The issue revolves around the fact that Israel refuses to define her borders, unlike the United States has NO Constitution (they do have a Declaration of Independence…big deal!), and they dare compare their country to England which they claim has no Constitution (England has what is actually called an “unwritten Constitution”), and Israel’s High Court is in no way analogous to the U.S. Supreme Court, and implements institutionalized Zionism. Without a Constitution, Israel freely gets away with not addressing the status and rights of non-Jews under her civilian rule (within 1967 borders) and military rule (in the West Bank). Jews have taken 78 percent of historic Palestine, and built hundreds upon hundreds of settlements on the remaining 22 percent, and taking the choicest pieces of land…hilltops, fertile areas, areas with water aquifers and wells, etc.
Therefore please do not draw parallels between the Arabs and Israelis when it comes to intransigence. The PLO officially recognized Israel as a state, in spite of the fact that even the pre-1967 Israel consists of areas that were designated as Arab by the 1948 Partition Plan (such as the Galilee, which was designated as part of an Arab homeland), and not a single Palestinian whose home was taken over by Zionists was ever compensated or allowed to return.
Israel officially annexed the Golan Heights in flagrant violation of international law, and by doing so, the Sea of Galilee (Lake Tiberias) came completely under Israeli control, and the annexation was in part because Israel wanted to be the sole country with access to freshwater from this important source. It is not enough that they have been taking water from this lake, and overtaken all the wells and water aquifers in the West Bank, they have their eyes on the Litani in southern Lebanon as a source of freshwater for the Galilee.
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