I suspect that the Israelis aren't really sure what to do next. Sure they can push Hezbollah back and seriously damage their infrastructure but then what? Occupation has not worked out for them. A lot of people are complaining that Israel is holding back because of some political correctness or fear of what the left wing says or something. That doesn't seem terribly plausible to me. I suspect that Hezbollah is trying to goad Israel into a large scale invasion of Lebenon in order to possibly spark a larger conflict between Israel and any number of Arab nations. Of course Israel can beat any or even all of the Arab countries but wars are costly, even ones that you win. And there is still that pesky problem about what to do afterwords. Do you create a buffer zone? How? NATO will do a lot of hand wringing but won't help much. The UN will continue on the path of uselessness. We are are their staunchest ally but we are waist deep in Iraq and Afghanistan. Occupying the buffer zone themselves just adds to the cost. So what does a nation do in that situation?

SFC W