Buoyed Hezbollah plans next move
To the surprise of almost nobody, the Israeli-Hezbollah ceasefire amounts to a great victory for the terrorists. Few can remember Israel acting tepidly in war, but this instance they certainly have. Israel has left the Hezbollah militants feeling good, and acting as the superior armed force, even embarrassing and ridiculing the Lebanese army.
IT was supposed to be the day the maligned Lebanese army took control of the country’s borders and policed the UN ceasefire.
Instead, the military commanders were left humiliated and troops stranded as Hezbollah told them not to disarm its fighters.
The first infantry units were preparing to head south when Hezbollah showed who controls the area by announcing it would not surrender its weapons.
Worse…. Hezbollah (and the world’s media) are proclaiming a great victory…
Given Hezbollah’s military strength, there will be no disarmament without a political agreement at the national level in Lebanon.
For such a deal, Hezbollah might demand further concessions from Israel, such as prisoner releases and a handover of the Shebaa Farms, an area which Lebanon claims, but which Israel (backed by the UN) says is part of the Golan Heights – captured from Syria in 1967 and annexed by Israel.
And Hezbollah still has as bargaining chips the two Israeli soldiers it captured in a cross-border raid on 12 July – and whose release Israel said its bombardment was meant to secure.
Position of strength
The initial signs in Beirut do not indicate a trouble-free course ahead. Hezbollah’s cabinet ministers threatened to boycott a cabinet meeting on Sunday set up to discuss the ceasefire, causing it to be postponed.
They are in a position of strength, because as far as its Islamic Resistance armed wing is concerned, Hezbollah has scored a great victory against the Israeli army.
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