Ooohh boo hoo. They are left with nothing, oh no poor little terrorists. You reap what you sew. I hope the next round comes sooner than later. There are still plenty of terrorists in South Lebanon that need to be taken care of.

"or contempt shown by the central government to area residents." This is Hizballah's "state within a state." Most likely Hizballah insists on controlling the renovations, and is blocking work that it can't control. Regardless, Hizballah won't fight NOW, but it will continue to arm and will attack Israel again later.

he came up from six feet underground for a breath of fresh air.

Israel must use strong military action to complicate Nasrallah's quandry. Nor mere retaliation...short , devastating, even out of proportion, Israeli miltary action. This will be an example for ALL the other snakes ! moshe , Israel

Nassrallah serves multiple interests, dominant among these are Iran and Syria. If Iran or Syria decide a confrontation is in their interests, Nassrallah will be hard pressed to refuse. Furthermore Nassrallah stature in the Arab world is conditioned on his confronting Israel. Should Nassrallah be seen as failing to fulfill this role he will lose a just as essential constituency, as his Southern Shiite base, for his wider ambitions. For consideration, Josef Cohen

excellent analysis of the region on the assumption that nasralla takes orders from Iran, im not sure local opinion is restraining nasrallah..bu more like tehran orders. It is well known that hezbollah are rearming and will go for round 2 when they can put up good resistance. According to reports, they are getting their hands on iranian anti air missiles, and longer range missiles than they had in the first round. I do hope nasrallah can be taken out of circulation very soon. Why didnt they blast him when he gives his famous speaches of victory at the hezbollah parades in full view of israeli satelites?

It was just a spelling mistake

Like Bush says 'you must choose which side your on!'. These villagers that allowed rockets to be fired from their houses now know the cost and risks involved and must decide where their loyalties are. According to UNIFIL they still stand with Hezbullah so they should perhaps prepare themselves for some more rebuilding. Especially if we can get rid of Olmert and Peretz before the next round.

Perhaps the US and Israel might find Nasrallah's dilemma instructive. A few miserable Iranians will similarly foreclose the monkey Ahmidinejad from his messianic ambitions. A few well-placed cruise missiles with a message that this is just the beginning unless the nuke reactors are dismantled will do what no amount of futile 'diplomacy' can to attenuate this megalomaniac's delusional adventurism.

I recall that Nasser described the 67 war which he orchestrated as a "setback". A masterly understatement given the monumental destruction of the Egyption army and the strategic shift.

Hezbollah supplied tons of money to rebuild the communities in the south. The people living in these town are not desperate; they recieved all the help they wanted. Moreover, it is highly probable that most of them know that Israel is in large part responsible for the unecessary widepsread destruction that occured. For sure, Nasarallah admitted that he miscalculated his move. But honestly, who would have thought that israel would used cluster bombs in residential areas, or destroy all the gas pumps in Tyre? The people in the south of Lebanon want all but another round of war, but they still support Hezbollah, and Israel cannot be blind to that fact. In any cases, there won't be any war in the near future. Hezbollah will slowly, progressively rebuild its defenses along the border. It should not be a surprise if, in 5 years, they have outposts along the border as before. By that time, last summer's war will have been forgotten for a long time.

Nasrallah's is in a quandary. He knows the next round will go alot worse for his organization in particular and for the ordinary people of Lebanon in general. At this juncture, he cannot embark on any wild notion of really and truly defeating the "Zionist regime", it could just be his last and worst mistake.

Israel is not going to take on Hezbollah again. Wounds from her last humiliation are too fresh. Lebanon has become Israel's Vietnam. Israeli military officers have been sacked for disgracing Israel during the last war of July 2006. They promised to get back two kidnapped soldiers and not stop fighting until this objectives war met. They ended the war after getting 120 more Israeli solders killed. Therefore it is safe to say that ISrael for a long time to come is not going to even think about going to war with the Iranian proxy in Lebnanon. Israel may issue threat and claims to be getting ready for war, but everyone knows ISrael is not powerful enough to destroy Hezbollah. Shame on the mightiest army in the middle east.

I can't remember the last tragedy in which I lad so little sympathy for the victims. Darfur-yes lebanese Shiites-no

Israel does it's laundry in public and therefore had the inquiry. I live in Tel Aviv and would not have known that the 'war' was even going on except for what I read in the newspapers. Our leaders kept the IDF on a leash due to political restraints. Don't believe what you read in rags like the Guardian. The coffee shops and restaurants were full throughout the 'war' and Israel's economy improved. Hezbullah didn't move one meter into Israel ... From Israel's point of view this was a skirmish and not a war.

You write :"The Christians, Sunnis and Druze target him (Nasrallah) mercilessly, ..". The IDF should setup a group of secret-agents ala James Bond. The ONLY task of this group should be to infiltrate into Lebanon and capture Hassan Nasrallah alive. AFTER capture - Nasrallah should be brought to Israel. THAN Nasrallah should be exchanged for the 2 Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah in July 2006 from sovereign Israeli land.