Hizbullah / Hezbollah (just the group)

[SteveMetz]

In a recent interview, Hezbollah spokesman Hussein Rahhal discussed how Israel's summer 2006 war against Hezbollah changed both the West's vision of Arabs and the Arabs' vision of themselves (al-Quds al-Arabi, July 13). Rahhal claims that the Arabs now see themselves as "capable of action," and no longer as a people "who cannot do anything in the face of an advanced Western machine [the Israeli military] that is supported with a lifeline from the West." He argued that the West now sees the Arab as one with the "will of steadfastness, confrontation and dedication, as well as the capability of fighting…who can be a match for the Israeli, who has 60 years of technical and financial support from the West…We have forced the West to look at us as equals." Rahhal also analyzed the changed perception that Israelis have of themselves in the wake of the war. "There is a feeling of disappointment and failure [among Israelis]," he said. "This is because he has reached a conviction that if the Arabs had a will to fight, they cannot win. They are reassessing the situation with regard to all Arab armies. This is extremely important, and it is a strategic change that involves the Arab and Israeli individuals."

Jamestown Foundation Terrorism Focus, July 17, 2007 - Volume IV, Issue 23

This reminds me of all the time Saddam Hussein spent explaining why 1991 was actually a win for him. These guys must be magna cum laude graduates of the Karl Rove Academy of Positive Spin

[Jedburgh]

Infantry Mar-Apr 08 (AKO Log-In Required): The Arab Perspective of the 2006 Israeli War with Hezbollah - The Egyptian Strategic Research Central Al-Ahram Annual Strategic Report

....The Arab report states that 1,500 Hezbollah fighters shattered and eroded the invincibility and deterrence factors of the IDF. Israeli forces could not advance at will towards Beirut as they did in 1982, and this is already being touted as Hezbollah offering a major deterrence factor to Israeli military movement towards the Lebanese capital. Arab articles and books on the war refer to this conflict as the Sixth Arab-Israeli conflict, which is indicative of the timeline by which the mass media in the region view its long-term wearing down of Israel....

[Rex Brynen]

Retired IDF general: Deterrence is our best option against Hezbollah

Giora Eiland says another war between Israel and Hezbollah 'will be a war between Israel and the State of Lebanon and will wreak destruction on the State of Lebanon.'

Haaretz 16 December 2010 /Reuters

Mass devastation in Lebanon is Israel's best deterrence against the powerful Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, former Israel Defense Forces general and national security adviser Giora Eiland said Thursday, warning that Israel's home front would suffer greatly in any confrontation between the two sides.

"Our only way of preventing the next war, and of winning if it happens anyway, is for it to be clear to everyone ... that another war between us and Hezbollah will be a war between Israel and the State of Lebanon and will wreak destruction on the State of Lebanon," Eiland told Israel Radio. "And as no one - including Hezbollah, the Syrians or the Iranians - is interested in this, this is the best way of creating effective deterrence."


Eiland also cautioned that guerrilla group, which has an arsenal of thousands of rockets, would inflict heavy damage on the Israeli home front if war broke out.

Israel last sent its troops into southern Lebanon in 2006, after Hezbollah abducted and killed two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border attack. Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah's Iranian and Syrian backers have stoked expectations of renewed violence in Lebanon.

"Israel does not know how to beat Hezbollah," said Eiland, who served as national security adviser to former prime ministers Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert.

"Therefore a war waged only as Israel-versus-Hezbollah might yield better damage on Hezbollah, but Hezbollah would inflict far worse damage on the Israeli home-front than it did 4-1/2 years ago," he said.

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