The road to Damascus

The U.S. may have to resume talks with Syria

By Shmuel Rosner

WASHINGTON - Everyone knows that Israel's Lebanon wishlist will not be met in its entirety. A number of the concessions that Israel will presumably have to agree to in the days and weeks to come have already been leaked from the various and sundry diplomatic talks being held in Beirut, Jerusalem and Rome.

Hezbollah will not be disarmed, at least not in the short term. Any international force to be deployed in Lebanon will serve as little more than a buffer force along the border. The likelihood of its remaining there depends largely on the goodwill of Hezbollah, and perhaps that of Syria and Iran, too.

It is similarly unlikely that Israel's kidnapped soldiers will be returned without at least a token release of prisoners.

But it is the Shaba Farms that will pose one of the greatest problems for Israel. Israel recognizes that it is not its territory and ostensibly should not find it hard to hand over the keys, but conceding the area to the Lebanese government, or to a committee that will decide whether to give it to Lebanon or to Syria, will be presented as another Hezbollah victory. The Americans, too, know this

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743481.html

my comment : which, if correct, means a victory for the Hezbollah. They will show that despite heavy beating, you can challenge Israel. This will even change the relation with Egypt and Jordan, which are going to get tougher. Israel is right now creating its own defeat, like the US is doing in Iraq. The best they can achieve is damage control.

qaeda and the rest of the terrorist organizations.

hizbollah caused this whole problem and i hope israel prevails.

i agree the US screwed up in Iraq. i just heard today that Iraq has asked for more money and more troups. bush screwed up here. israel and hizbollah are another story.

could the Vietcong be "disarmed" ? the only way to disarm the Hezbollah is to flatten Lebanon. Technically it's possible, but on the other end it would mean the end of Israel through the outrage created. I think that Israel lost this war the day they decided to bomb Beirut.

terrorists who send missiles or strap explosives to themselves. what about all the innocents killed by them?

do you have any patience for that, or is it only violence against Israel you're opposed to? You think Israel is innocent?

As far as "strapping explosives to themselves", don't you think they would like to switch weapons? "Terrorism" is a tactic, it's not an ideology, and usually a tactic of the weak.

bombers, bombs in cars -- traps set up to hit the first responders.

eom

That would lead to WWIII.