Just goes to show that any meglomaniac idiot can be Defence Minister, or Prime Minister for that matter. These "leaders" are corrupt, incompetent, self-important loud-mouths, and it is sad that Israel is led by such fools.

Hooray for Defense Minister Amir Peretz. He appears to be a leader with lots of chutzpah. Here in the US it seems even Rumsfeld must learn while on the job. The important thing is this: Will he listen to the best military advice? Will he be emboldened to take the necessary but politically incorrect steps to finish the job of scattering /disarming/neutralizing Hizzbullah? Let the diplomats do what they do best, and allow IDF to plan & execute force upon force. This is the only way to a succesful conclusion of what looks to be the opening salvo of WWIII. Kent Houser USA

Moshe Arens should be put in charge of the MoD, he was the best DM ever.

# 1 your ignorant. If Israel starts using chemical, or unconventional warfare, it's days will be numbered, especialy against a country we want to succed. You're not thinking with your thinking cap on.

And late at night??? What arrogance!! Israel is at war and not at a picnic north of the border. This kind of attention to detail is in the very same style which cost France millions of lives in WWI. Who does Peretz think he is to make the generals and the soldiers wait like that when they're being fired on and must move quickly? The man's an idiot who should be removed from that post at the earliest.

Enough of the complaints that Peretz is "unfit," that he isn't a superman or infallible. It was the "infallible" prime ministers and defense ministers who came in from the defense establishment who got us into this in the first place - looking the other way while Hizbullah built up its mini-empire in Lebanon. Peretz at least knew that he didn't know - and did what was necessary to find out. Mark Twain said, "It isn't what you don't know that gets you into trouble, it's what you "know" that isn't so." For years the Defense Ministry was simply a department of the IDF and the government headed by ex-generals. They "knew" - just like the generals "knew" that the Arabs wouldn't go to war in 1973. Now we have a civilian Defense Minister who knows how to think - and we should be grateful. He doesn't pretend to know everything, or that the IDF is capable of anything. Just an unglamorous realist -something we've needed for a long time.

"If the resistance survives, this will be a victory. If its determination is not broken, this will be a victory. If Lebanon is not humiliated, if its honor and dignity remain intact, if Lebanon continues to face all alone the strongest military force in the region, and if it perseveres and refuses to accept any humiliating terms in the settlement of this issue - this will be a victory. If we are not militarily defeated, this will be a victory."

Peretz says tha tas this escalates he sees that the solution is diplomatic. I ask him,"Name once when diplomacy has worked BEFORE the enemy seeks surrender?" Only a politician would think of a diplomatic solution 1st. I am in awe of the lack of shock. Israel wake up!

Why is it taking so long?

Beyond the Defense Minister being highly inexperienced, the Israel military is handicapped by not having Moshe Ya'alon to lead it. Ya'alon, cashiered by Sharon for being opposed to the Gaza pull-out last year, is a far more experienced general than is Halutz.