Israel's current crisis with the kidnapped soldier

[Ifat Glassman]

Israel's method of fighting, and the declared goals of this operation (or war) has changed dramatically since the beginning of this crisis.

At the beginning it was "We will disarm Hesbollah completely, and once and for all", then it was "we will destroy most of hesbollah's ability to strike" (along with declarations such as "only 5 days of fighting and Israel has already destroyed 60% of Hesbollah's ability") and then it became "Ok, we just want to push Hesbollah back a few Kilometers from the border (And to get the kidnapped soldiers back)".

The IDF's method of fighting changed: we no longer bomb every site we have intelligence of. Instead we send in small forces, with artillery and air-force backup to fight terrorists face to face in guerrilla combat. When we learn of a location of a terrorist "camp" we don't bomb the place (because it would involve killing Lebanese who stayed in the south despite Israel's warning to leave), but instead send our troops in to do a "surgical" cleanup that end up with many injured soldiers (and a few dead) on our side.

An interesting article (which, for some reason, never got translated to English from Hebrew, so I can't supply a link) suggests that the reason for this type of combat that we're doing is to break Hesbollah's myth that they are "undefeatable in land combat" and by that (plus taking several hostages) demoralising them into negotiation under terms that are acceptable for Israel.

Grrrr, why can't we just bomb the heck out of their "Bynth Gable" (I'm probably spelling the name of the town incorrectly) which is called the "capitol of Hesbollah".

Is it the European pressure that brought this change in Israel's attitude?

It's also known that Israel acquired smart bombs from the US (satellite guided) and Bunker-penetrating bombs, Yeah! Can't wait till we start using them.

As for attacking Syria - yeah right! we're not even after full disarm of Hesbollah anymore. And we made it clear to Syria that we will not attack them. The bastards keep on trying to smuggle trucks full of ammunition to Hesbollah.

I'm very disappointed with how Israel is caving in, and I don't understand why.