BEIRUT: Ibrahim Moussawi, the editor of Hizbullah's Al-Intiqad (The Criticism) weekly newspaper and Al-Manar television said Tuesday that the "open war which the Israelis launched against Lebanon to release its two captured soldiers is a false excuse." In an interview with The Daily Star, Moussawi said: "The Israelis know that Hizbullah was trying to capture Israeli soldiers to swap them with the Lebanese detainees in Israel. Hizbullah had announced it was going to do so over the past year. Besides, this is not the fist time that Hizbullah tries to capture Israeli soldiers. Hizbullah tried to do so four months ago but weren't successful and three Hizbullah martyrs fell in battle then." Moussawi added: "What happened is that Israel, which considers itself the invincible army, is trying to save face and accomplish some sort of victory because they have already gone into war and cannot back out without an accomplishment.
| So they're going to save face by grinding Hezbollah to dust? Sounds pretty good to me... |
"The international community is giving the Israelis a grace period to accomplish their goal before they implement a cease-fire," he added. "Meanwhile, the Lebanese have nothing to lose. They've been hit, killed, injured, the infrastructure demolished. The only thing that can be said to the Israelis is that it is not bravery to attack and kill civilians."
| Hezbollah seems to be doing a pretty good job of indiscriminately shelling northern Israel... |
Analyst and university professor Talal Atrisi agreed with Moussawi, saying: "Israel isn't trying to save its two captured soldiers, but to prevent itself from losing face." In a telephone interview with The Daily Star Tuesday, Atrisi said that Israel's image as a military giant has "fallen" because it "has not been able to achieve victory, neither in Lebanon nor in Palestine."
| It wasn't at war with Leb... |
"The main question now," he said, is "'has Israel been able to accomplish its goal in weakening Hizbullah?'" So far, he noted, "the losses ... have not affected Hizbullah's capability to respond to Israeli attacks with rocket salvos against northern Israel."
| Been pretty hard on the Leb in the street, but they don't appear to be very important to Hezbollah... |
Hizbullah's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, warned in a recorded message broadcast Sunday that his group refrained from hitting the petrochemical plants in Haifa and decided to hit targets near them to "spare a catastrophe among civilians [but] if the Israelis continue to hit our civilians and disregard all the red lines then we will not disregard red lines the next time."
| Ummm... The targets near them are apartment buildings... |
"Eliminating Hizbullah now would be facilitation for the Israeli-American vision for the entire Middle East, which means an easier strike could be made on Syria and Iran," Atrisi said. "Thus I believe that the negotiations that would happen would be larger than Lebanon and would be on a regional base." But, he added: "I also believe that Israeli public opinion cannot sustain a long war, and it will pressure its government to end this war on Lebanon."
| I doubt it. But I don't think a long war will be called for, either. |
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