Reply #34: It's a reasonable bit of writing. [View All]

"Hezbollah's strategy has been imposed on it. It seems committed to standing and fighting."
This is precisely what Israel's said its goal was; forcing Hezbollah to fight, not go to ground, with its resources at hand and not with the full industrial might of Iran and Syria behind it. With due allowance for inevitable errors--why assume that Israelis are supermen?--what Israel said it would do is what it has done.

But bombing Syria, intentionally or not, would not be a casus belli as far as Israel is concerned; it would play very badly in Syria and the Arab world, and might force Syria into a war I don't think Assad wants. So I agree that Syria doesn't want a war; I see no evidence that Israel wants a war with Syria. It's stated its goals, quite clearly; why nobody can take Middle Easterners at face value, when speaking to their own people, I'll never understand.

It's fairly clear, IMHO, what Israel wants to have happen: It wants Hezbollah castrated, as stated. It wants Lebanon to apply with Res. 1559, as Israel's UN ambassador stated, which is to say, stop the bombing of N. Israel and Hezbollah provocations in that area, and disarm Hezbollah, with Lebanon establishing control in the area.

This is precisely what Israel's said it wants in Gaza, as well. Big surprise.