Will Olmert’s Stupidity Open a Window of Opportunity?

[bemildred]

Can good come from evil? Is it possible that out of the current carnage in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and northern Israel could come a sober recognition on all sides that victory is impossible and that compromise is necessary? It would be nice.

It’s clear by now how this outbreak of organized cruelty and destruction is not going to end. Israel has already had almost two weeks to pound Hezbollah into smithereens from the air, and it hasn’t accomplished even ten percent of the task. Hundreds of innocent Lebanese civilians have died (together with lots of Lebanese Army soldiers who were asleep in their barracks, the very soldiers that Israel allegedly wants to replace Hezbollah’s militia in the border areas). But few of Hezbollah’s fighters have been killed, and its rockets continue to rain on northern Israeli cities.

President George W. Bush and his faithful British sidekick, Prime Minister Tony Blair, have staved off demands from practically everywhere else for a cease-fire for two weeks now, and they can probably manage to stall on the issue for at least another week. But Israel’s only option, in that remaining week, is to commit its soldiers to a full ground invasion of southern Lebanon — which would send Israeli casualties soaring.

By dint of restricting itself to air attacks and keeping its own soldiers out of combat (except for brief “pinprick” incursions across the frontier), Israel has maintaind the illusion of the traditional ten-to-one kill ratio familiar from earlier Arab-Israeli wars. But almost all the Arab dead are innocent civilians. In terms of combatants, Israel is probably not achieving much better than a two-to-one ratio.

Arab News

[Kagemusha]

1. I'm not even sure more Hezbollah than IDF have died so far.

Probably, but it's hard to tell from the few numbers out. That it could even be remotely close - obviously, total Lebanese killed are far higher - is astonishing in terms of what Israel wants to accomplish with this operation.

[bemildred]

2. They all lie.

Hizbullah isn't saying much anyway, the numbers coming from the Israelis are all over the place. It is clear simply from the fact that so much time is being spent on Maroun al Ras that things are not going according to the script.

[bemildred]

3. Here:

"There was relatively little combat in Maroun al-Ras on Sunday, the 12th day of fighting in Lebanon. More paratroopers entered the area around dawn, accompanied by members of the Armored and Engineering Corps, and took control of key positions in the outskirts of the village. They also prepared to bomb bunkers and weapons caches there.

The troops met up with relatively little opposition, a sign that most Hezbollah operatives had already withdrawn from the area.

An officer with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon was seriously wounded near the village, and flown to an Israeli hospital. The IDF said he was hurt by Hezbollah fire."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/741820.html

[DELUSIONAL]

4. Compromise is the only option

Israel can never kill, eradicate, terminate, blow to bits -- every individual and group and nation who threatens them. Also the other side probably now realizes that they can't drive Israel out -- Israel is going to be a force in the Middle East for a long time.

There has to be a middle path -- first get rid of Olmert and the Neocons -- let the Israeli people elect some new faces who are willing to talk peace .. .

Use Sharon's coming death as a new starting point . . . sorry but he will die eventually -- we will all die someday.

[Joe Bacon]

5. I'm just scared over all of this!

:scared: