20-Jul-06: Reality checks

The fighting on the northern border has been intense during the past 24 hours. Haaretz, reporting on the deaths of two IDF soldiers yesterday and reports of injuries this morning, offers three important insights:

1. Like the IDF, Hezbollah too has been preparing for this confrontation for six years.
2. Not everything can be done from the air.
3. A ground operation is going to involve "quite a few casualties". The government of Israel will have to factor this reality into its planning as it decides on a more massive invasion in the future.

The same article reports on a visit by a UN delegation that is here to "try to solve the crisis". They're not optimistic.

One member said it would be five-six weeks before the fighting ended. The envoys believe Hezbollah is not interested in a cease-fire and Israel cannot agree to one.

(Presumably that last point means Israel can't tolerate a vicious, uncontrolled, armed-to-the-teeth enemy perched on the territory of a sovereign neighbouring state (Lebanon) and with thousands of missiles in its control primed and pointed into Israeli towns and cities. In other words, the status quo for the past six years . A status quo which led, day by day, speech by hate-filled Nasrallah speech, to this eruption of unprovoked Hizbullah violence. No government can tolerate a situation like this, and no nation ever has.)

Haaretz also throws light on the national mood:

A Home Front Command poll at the beginning of the week shows that most people in the north rate its fortitude as "medium to high." Most residents do not intend to leave their homes and their level of solidarity with the military operation is very high.