Who in your opinion won the war in Lebanon?

Question

About 1300 Lebanese died but less than 50 Israelis
Immense damage was also done to the Lebanese cities. and the wild life in the Mediterranian Sea from oilslicks, after the bombing of Lebanese oil storage tanks. Israel demonstrated that they are the super power in that region.
Surely by any reckoning, they won.

But consider this. The Israelis killed hardly any terrorists.
Inspite of their huge superiority in numbers and arms they could not stop the crudely made rockets fired against them, and they did not even get the release of their two kidnapped soldiers, who were the declared reason for their attack.

But I think the most important loss for Israel will prove to be the loss good will the western world had for their cause until now. Many people in Europe are now asking that the International Court should try some leaders for war crimes.

On the other hand you could say, to hell with world opinion, counting the damage and the dead Israel won.
I wonder what you think.

Answer 1

WELL
HERE ARE SOME FACTS:
TWO NOTES:
1-Hezbulla started this crisis when they snatched two Israeli soldiers. BUT WHY? Well, so as to recover Lebanese civilians in the Israeli jails. Some of these prisoners have been in the Israeli jails for more than 28 years.

2-In this crisis, Hezbulla never fired rockets at the northern Israeli cities UNTIL Israeli jets bombarded Beirut and tens of towns everywhere in Lebanon. Hezbulla warned the Israelis that if they didn't stop targeting civilians, Hezbulla would retaliate (Eye for an eye). The Israelis ignored that, and after about 100 civilians were killed in the capital (Beirut) and other towns, Hezbulla retaliated firing rockets. Every day Hezbulla declared that: If Israel stops targeting civilians, we will stop firing rockets, and restrict fighting to confrontation in the real battlefield. Israel ignored every warning.

I PERSONALLY think that the Israelis themselves wanted Hezbulla to keep firing rockets so as to tell the world that Hezbulla is targeting civilians.

OTHER FACTS TO KNOW:
1- Hezbulla fighters fought bravely in the real battlefield on the borders.

2- When the Israeli soldiers who were hiding in their armored tanks tried to get in, they were faced with a precise shooting of "shoulder rockets" by Hezbulla fighters.

3- When a tank was destroyed, the other Israeli soldiers tried to recover the casualties. At that time, Hezbulla used the light weapons shooting them.

4- Every incident of that type caused at least 4 to 5 dead Israeli soldiers. That's why we normally had at least 4 to 5 dead soldiers in one shot.

5- Hezbulla fighters happened to be waiting in trenches, bunkers, among trees ...on the front line.

6- They ambushed every single incursion of the Israelis, and directly hit.

7- As a matter of fact, they were not hiding in the bunkers, but taking well-prepared positions to DEFEND their soil and territory.

8- Most of the Israeli soldiers forwarded to the land battlefield were reservists, who were called while they were spending time drinking alcohol and dancing. So, we had Israeli drunkards fighting against believers of a lofty goal.

9- The Israeli soldiers thought that they were going on a picnic or trophy and that they would hunt Hezbulla one by one.

10- Those soldiers didn't know that a Hezbulla fighter was fighting to defend his land and family.

11- Knowing every inch of their land, Hezbulla fighters were applying the Vietnam style.

12- When the Israeli convoy captured a hill, they thought that it had become theirs. But the Hezbulla fighters waited till night, then launch assault.

13- I would think that most of the soldiers were killed while fleeing back across the borders.

14- It seemed that there were no Hezbulla fighters in the northern parts of Lebanon where the Israelis targeted civilians. So, what happened was that: Hezbulla fighters face-to-face fought on the borders, while the Israeli jets bombarded the civilians in the north.

16- This last fact is to wrongly vindicate Israel killing civilians.

17- The Israelis thought that Hezbulla fighters would surrender so as to save the civilians in the northern cities. But All Lebanese (Muslims & Christians) united and supported Hezbulla because they knew that the Israelis were killing them intentionally.

18- A VERY SIMPLE finding is that: Hezbulla were fighting to defend, while the Israelis were just killing civilians.

19- The Israelis proved to be cowards. HOW? well, I bet that if you stood behind an Israeli soldier and all of a sudden shouted: "HEZBULLA" ... I bet he would die of a heart attack.

20- Another fact is: Hezbulla were fighting for themselves, the Israelis fought for their leaders.

21- Mainly, Hezbulla were not firing rockets at Israeli northern cities to kill. Coz they know that almost every Israeli was hiding in the shelters. RATHER, Hezbulla was aiming at causing fear and shock, causing damage in retaliation of the damage inflicted among Lebanese civilians, and to trigger opposition in Israel to stop war.

22- The Israeli army (especially the jet fighter pilots) tried their best to kill as many civilians as possible, so as to presumably show that they were winning. They thought that the Israeli people would say: "Well done! We are winning. See the casualties on the other side."

23- Hezbulla were located in the south (approximately 20X20 miles area). Nevertheless, almost 99% of Lebanese civilians were killed in the northern cities (200 miles away from the borders).
That's why they name the killing "MASSACRES".

24- The spearhead of Israeli army (Golani Brigade) is considered the elite. Well ; are they really?

25- I personally strongly believe that the winner was Hezbulla. WHY? Well, all Hezbulla's goals were achieved, and all Israel's were not.

HOW:

Israel's goals:
1- Recover the two soldiers (not achieved).
2- Disarm Hezbulla (not achieved).
3- Prevent Hezbulla from firing rockets (not achieved).

Hezbulla's goal:
No soldiers to return to Israel without swap of prisoners (via indirect negotiations)… (so far VALID.)

MOREOVER: Israel finally accepted negotiations for swap of prisoners. (seems to me that they wanted to save two by killing 115 of their fellows)

SO:
The last figures according to the Israeli well-known "Haaretz" newspaper are as follows:
http://www.haaretz.com/
22:48Israeli death toll in war with Lebanon reaches 147 (Haaretz)

LEBANON:
1200 civilians (600 children/ 120 mothers/ old men ... etc.)
56 Hezbulla fighters (killed in the real battlefield.)

ISRAEL:
32 civilians (mostly Arabs.)
115 soldiers (mainly killed while fleeing or gathering to recover bodies and tanks.)


HERE ARE SOME IMPORTANT CONSEQUENCES:
1-Arab people now believe that the normal armies in their countries are complacent and work only as a bodyguard for the rulers. Therefore, I think we will witness births of many resistance groups in the Middle East to protect their peoples.

2-A full generation in Lebanon and Arab countries will be raised up on avenging what has happened to their CIVILIAN brothers in Lebanon.

3-Israel has endangered its existence in the region because it has uncovered all its savagery and intentional killing, massacres, destruction and brutality.

4-America can not stand too long supporting Israel, because it has now to fight the people not the regimes. Perhaps you know what it means to fight a people or a people to fight. NO CONSPIRACY, NO COMPLACENCY!

5-Every emerging resistance group will probably be receiving DIRECT support from almost every single person in the region.

6-The Bush's "Greater/Broader Middle East" notion has failed, and so has the Condi's "New Middle East".

A last – but not least – finding is that: No surviving child in Lebanon would forget his 5-member family killed by the American-made warplanes, American-donated smart bomb, piloted and dropped by an Israeli jet-pilot.

SEE YOU NEXT EPISODE.

Answer 2

The only country in the world that matters is the United States. They are the most powerful country in the world by far and they like Israel. Israel won by the numbers and Hezbollah has seemed to have disappeared. The Lebanese army has moved into southern Lebanon and all of the sudden there is no more visible Hezbollah.

Answer 3

A lot of beating around the bush in the answers above

Hezbollah, unfortunately is (IMHO) the victor in this campaign.

The ink has not even dried on the cease fire agreement and already those with any capability (France and Germany primarily) have already weazeled thier way out of supporting a UN mission in the area.

The defence minister in Lebanon says "It's not his job to disarm Hezbollah." SO basicly what you have now is the Israeli military relenting to international pressures to cease thier operations with hardly any tactical or stratigic goals being accomplished. Sure they pushed into Lebanon a good distance, but the Hezbollah militias simply cache thier weapons until the Isrealis leave. The UN has no teeth with which to enforce any sort of peace (Peace enforcement is a far different mission than Peace Keeping)

The Leboneese military that's taking over the areas the Israelis are pushing out of... well, I wish them well and hope they are up to the task of policing thier own... but I seriously doubt we can trust their military to put forth an honest campaign to remove the Hezbollah influence from that part of the country... Hell I doubt if thier military can put forth a campaign to remove Hezbollah influence from ther ranks.

Bottom line... Israel fought the "Good Fight" but could not stand up to the international pressures that the US has been under since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Israel IS the focul point of what is turning out to be WWIII and it will not be fought like the last two World Wars...

Answer 4

First off, there was no Israel vs. Lebanon, it was Israel vs. Hezbollah. No one won it, it wasn't really a war anyway. Hezbollah's army is still there, sure both sides lost some men in battle, but they can always rebuild their self's up. Hopefully the UN will come in and clean it (I doubt it though, the UN is weak) up by taking Hezbollah out of the picture.

The person that said this is part of WW3 is a fool, no where near it, stop listening to the media. Also the person that said it would be smart for the US to stay on Israel's side because it's lasted so long in the mid-east, they have lasted there because we, the US, have sent sent billions of dollars to them in aid. Since 1949 the US has given Israel a total of $134,791,507,200 in aid.

Answer 5

well considering the UN always gives and caves to terrorists, Hezbollah won. In combination with media attacks and untrue statements isreal was condemned by the world for defedning itself. as much as i want to say Isreal won, but its not true. Hezbollah hides their weapons in civilian populated areas and when isreal bombs these areas they do kill civilians. Do you think this is coincidence? The media doesnt show us the destroyed weapons because the evidence is buried, but we do see the people who were killed, in fact thats all we see so we form an opinion that is against isreal. Do you think isreal didnt research and gather intelligence before they bombed a city. There were no carpet bombings, isreal tried to take every precaution. Yet people rioted for isreals response, why? Riots are being used to advance the agenda of Islamic Fundamentalism. There were no demonstrations for the terrorists actions on 9/11, or when they decapitated americans, but when a nation responds to terrorism there is rioting everywhere in the middle east. Selective outrage. And then Hezbollah fired thousands of missiles into isreal, killing civilians and destroying property, yet there were no demonstrations protesting that. The UN beleives that hezbollah will negotiate, well lets look to history. Jimmy carter negotiated with isreal and the plo until the cows came home, yet Yasser Arafat would not stop his terrorist activities that made him millions. No terrorist organization has ever followed through with their negotiations. Isreal has been forced to withdraw. Isreal can win a militarial war, but the media will never support them. Why? Because they are Jewish, and thats the truth.

Answer 6

Look more closely you will see that hizboallah left the war stronger and stronger. He lost maybe as a maximum 50 men while lebanon which wasn't concerned with this war lost all bridges, airport, highways, electricity , and many different places. Moreover lebanon lost more than 1000 person's mostly are from children and women so what isreal won in this matter on hizboallah. For god sake people wake up isreal did nothing in lebanon other that killing and demolishing buildings. They have failed severly in lebnon and till now they are trying to keep bombing hizboallah because they want to grab some victory for history only. Say there are some places destroyed because hizboallah was bombing from there but were hizboallah bombing from the airport , halat bridge, port, electricity, etc...
People please your opinion is very important as always so please study it before answering.

Answer 7

You win if you reach your targets.

Israel wanted to disarm Hezbollah but couldn't do it.

Israel wanted to kill Hassan Nasr-Allah but couldn't do it.

Israel wanted the Lebanese people to hate Hezbollah and get it out of the government and the military resistance but couldn't do it.

Israel wanted to tell the world that they want to get rid of what they call terrorists but instead, they showed the world that the Israeli government are the worst terrorists and child-killers.

On the other hand, Hezbollah wanted to prevent Israel from taking any more Lebanese lands and they did it.

Hezbollah wanted the powerful Israeli weapons to confess that the military power doesn't bring victory unless blessed with true faith and pure intentions, and they did it.

Hezbollah wanted the world to witness the Israeli-American copy of democracy and freedom, and they did it.

In the language of war, this means that both America and Israel had an obvious failure.

I completely agree with Razi. In fact, i can't add anything to what he said.

Answer 8

I think you hit the nail on the head when you say that the loss of good will is important. When the TV news carries pictures of dead children hit by Isreali missiles, there is a huge moral divide created. The causes of the war, just or otherwise, are not what people think about when they see those images.

Answer 9

Comparing the powerfull army of Israel with the high technology weapons and back support of America to the Hizbullah guerillas not a army but group of freedom fighters defended itself without giving up to the so powerfull army till the end.
So, Hizbullah (Lebonon) won the war without any doubt.

Answer 10

I think that Israel has a right to defend itself in a highly hostile area of the world. I don't think that they should be worried about the oppinion of France or Germany, those countries obviously don't believe in self defense or proactive threat destruction in any way. and as far as "irael's greed" they gained nothing by entering lebanon, no territory, no wealth, nothing. They have to be agressive in pursuing threats if they are to survive in the middle east.

Answer 11

Israel will not be defeated. The U.S. is wise to side with Israel. Think about it. Why do you think Israel has survivied so long where they are. They are deep in Arab country and hated with a passion, but yet they remain. Those people there are His people. When it hits the fan in the ME, (and as of yet, it really hasn't) God help us all.