Was the 2006 Lebanon War Israel's first defeat?

Question

If I recall correctly, Israel has never lost a war in its entire history. But many people conclude that Hezbollah defeated Israel last year.

Was Israel finally defeated in battle?

c. barla: I'm not a fan of Israel, but I'm less of a fan of terrorists. I was thinking and hoping that Israel would finally eliminate Hezbollah and capture or kill all of their leaders.

Mr. X: What objectives? Israel's goal was to recover its kidnapped soldiers. Still to this day, the two soldiers are missing. The other goal was to destroy Hezbollah and stop it from firing missles. The missles only stopped as a result of a mutual cease-fire, not because Israel stopped them by force. Israel failed at stopping the missle firings, despite their relentless bombings.

Answer 1

no it wasnt a defeat, it exposed the level of arming of the hezbollah to the world, it got rid of quite a large amount of hezbollah's infrastructure.
perhaps it also gave the hezbollah a sense that it won, which is needed for them to maybe make peace from what they consider a position of power, who knows what games are played in the corridors of power.

Answer 2

Hezbollah like to claim that they won because Israel didn't complete it's mission to reclaim the two soldiers, however, they also exposed Hezbollah for a Syrian/Iranian sponsored terrorist organisation not a true political party and it also prompted the Lebanese government to do something about it.

It was an ill-advised war and badly planned and Olmert with pay for it at the next election.

If Israel was ever truly defeated it would cease to exist.

Answer 3

Not exactly.
For starters, most of those who consider Hezbollah the victor in this last engagement also consider Syria/Egypt the victors in 1973. Obviously people's definitions of victory differ.
This previous engagement with Hezbollah was not truelly a war, rather it was a military operation. As a military operation, it failed. The objective was to rescue the kidnapped soldiers and that was not achieved. This is not entirely new; while Israel is generally very successful with its missions, they have been known to fail on occasion. However, as a war Israel surely came out on top in the end. While it is true that Hezbollah was not utterly wiped out, they certainly suffered more casualties and definately had a higher casualty percentage than Israel. Israel ended the conflict kilometers inside Lebanon, while no similar invasion into Israel occured. Hezbollah has lost its border positions to UNIFIL, while on the other hand Israel's border is now more secure.

Answer 4

2006 Lebanon war was a major war for both the Arabs and The Israelis. For the first time in Israel war history the land of Israel itself became a war zone. In the past wars Israel used the Arab land as a war zone and kept Israeli land out of the wars.
Israel was forced by the war to realize that military power will not save the Israeli people in a next major war. So peace is the only way for both people.

Answer 5

It was a sad situation in which Hezbollah and Israel both accomplished nothing except kill many people.

It is hopeless to believe that a militia group, however surprisingly well-armed, can defeat the greatest army in the Middle East and the best trained army in the world.

It is also hopeless to believe that an army can go into a populated area of urban warfare ( MOUT) and engage terrorists that blend in with the civilian population and crush the terrorists in a matter of a few weeks, in addition to the UN screaming "Genocide and blood libel."

The results were that for every Israeli soldier KIA (killed in action), roughly 5.65 (this is a statistic ratio for all you math deficients out there, lol) Hezbollah militants were KIA. Roughly 1,200 Leb civilians were killed, with 40 Israeli civilians dead. As a result of this war, over 100,000 Lebanese have fled Lebanon, correctly blaming Hezbollah for starting the conflict.

The Israeli response to Olmert was scathing. The man never had a military career ( apart from serving his 3 years, of course), he cannot lead a country, that well, lets face it, is militaristic ( not negative way, more like the military is crucial to Israel). I doubt seriously whether it is that Israel cannot fight anymore....this war was a surprise for the incompetent Olmert and he didn't fully put his act together. Now, if people expect to see war between Iran and Israel....Israel will take names- the Israelis have come under way worse odds than the Persians and won the day outright.

Hezbollah should have come out hugely popular from this war. It did not, contrary to what you see on the news, Hezbollah's popularity took a huge plunge, as no one expected the Israeli response to be so strong. Many Lebanese blame Hezbollah for bringing ruin upon them, and you can relate to that. Hezbollah promised $12,000 to each family to rebuild their homes- that never happened and Beirut still looks destroyed as bad as the huge parts of the city that are still ruined all the way back from 1975 (start of the 15 yr civil war).

In short.... the war was pointless and inconclusive. No group fared better than the other. and the war overall was inconclusive for both sides.

EDIT: However, it seems you have made up your own opinion, so stick with that if you are not a realist. LOL.

Answer 6

Tragically from what I understand, the soldiers are still missing and nobody knows if they are alive or not. It must be sheer hell for their families and also for the soldiers if they are live captives of Hezbollah.

- Just to argue a point made by EU Citizen. I don't think you can call Israel a 'puny little country'! Look how she fought in the 1948 War Of Independence! She was attacked simultaneously by five Arab armies yet Israel held her own and drove them back.

Yes, Israel is tiny, but then we all know the story of David and Goliath.....!

EDIT - I would love to know why I have been given thumbs-down, only someone totally irrational could possibly take offence with anything I said in this response.

Answer 7

I dont know if defeat is the right word for it but i dont think victory is the right word for what Israel did either as their objective to distroy Hezbollah was a complete failure.

So lebanon lost about 1000 civilans to Israel bombing raid's. Much of Lebanon's infrastructure was destroyed to Israeli bombings. About a 3rd of Lebanons population was displaced.

Israel lost about 1 or 2 tanks and 152 soldiers where killed.

Hezbollah is still around and hezbollah did something no one else could accomplish before namely removing Israel from arab land without the use of a peace treaty.

That is certainly an accomplishment in its own right but the motives ie hating Israel where selfish as they came at a great cost to lebanon in many way's.

Israel should give reperations to the civilans they killed and they should give money for the bombings of the infrastructure aswell.

Why was it neccesary to put Beirtue in the dark? Why was it so neccesary to bomb Beirut international Airport?

At any rate much of Israel's bombings where unjustified and may constitue a war crime,
It requires further analysis anyway

but the truth is Israel is a puny little country that feels surroned by enemies that best thing to do is not to provoke her.

Imaginie yourself in an israli's shoes your a hasidic jew you only speak hebrew and all of a sudden peopel from the outside are aggressing against you? threating your way of life... well its complicated but Israel is like a cat in the corner...

Answer 8

Who are these "many people" exactly?

Although no one can argue that Israel won (they clearly didn't), nevertheless, that does not necessarily imply the flip side, that Hizbollah won.
Hizbollah took many more losses than Israel did and Israel did not withdraw from the conflict due to anything Hizbollah did.
Thus, Hizbollah did not "defeat" Israel.

As is the case, one can argue that Israel did not win the Yom Kippur war either. My understanding was that ended in sort of a draw.

Answer 9

The real loser of the Israeli incursion into Lebanon was Lebanon, itself . . . The Hezballah has divided Lebanon and rendered the central government to a limited role in Lebanon's national affairs . . . Its ruthless forces are enemy to all but their own and the ambitions of Hezballah do not include the concept of national unity for Lebanon, unless under their dictatorial rule . . . .

There was no war with Lebanon, itself . . . Israel attempted to root out the Hezballah and destroy its ability to continue their bombardments of Israel but, failed in that venture because of the pervasive nature of that enemy . . . Hezballah had scattered it's weaponry and manpower in the maze of towns and cities to the extent that only a massive use of manpower could accomplish such a goal . . Israel was unwilling to expend that effort and eventually pulled out at the urging of the UN and the USA . . .

In one sense, Israel was successful, in that the rocket attacks have diminished . . . But, the Hezballah leadership has found refuge in Syria and continues to harangue and organize it's terrorist organization in Lebanon . . . Lebanon is a divided nation with little hope of unity because of Hezballah . . .

Answer 10

I believe the war had no winner. both countires mutually agreed to withdraw from that war. Lebanese were bing bombed and killed by the hundreds and Israelis were being fired at by Hezbollah misslils. both were in a tragic and horrible situation. this is not the first war Israel has "lost"....calling it a draw would be more suitable...Israel never actually surendered. if they did it would be all over the news but we did not hear anything. yes, if Israel had said "we surrender" then it would have been there first lost war. but they did not

Answer 11

No. Israel was forced to back down by the U.S. and U.N. out of fear that the rest of the Muslim nations in the area would join w Hezbollah, making things even worse over there. No matter how many missiles Iran sent them, Hezbollah is still a half-a**ed militia w no real military know how. Given enough time, Israel would have ground them under tank treads. Wouldn't have taken long, either.