The retreat transformed Hizzbolla from a guerilla/terrorist organization into an army with a missile umbrella reaching Tel Aviv. The country is simply not on fire... yet. But it will be.

You should know that if we DID make them an army instead of guerilla warefare army, we actually won again. See, if they are in guerilla mode, they can hide amongst civilians, and they dont have permanent 'bases', if they will, and they will, it will make it MUCH easier for us to blow those up, and it'll be much more efficient not to mention there won't be as many civilian casualties like until today. Hizbullah always had Katuyshot, they could fire at tel aviv at any time, but they know that if they will, we will take over Beirut, and I don't think they are willing to lose it, and we both know we have the power to do such thing. So think closely if it was such a bad move, in my opinion, we shouldn't have entered lebanon in first place, we should've bombed them from the air 24/7 until they realise who they deal with, the problem was, they were guerilla warriors back then. Once they are an army they are helpless, hence why they don't become officially one, even though they were offered to join the lebanonian army. Same goes for hamas PLO and such. If they had become an army of the palestinians, we'd destroy them easily, think about it.

Not for intra-state conflicts. There is a certain complex that the left in Israel has and it's sick. It's that hurting ourselves to prove a point is the best thing possible, and that victories for there political beliefs are more important then the health of the state. This continues on and on and I believe that it's about time it stops.

Those who vociferously oppose the hitkonsut don't do so out of any security concerns. Their non-arguments are largely spurious and plain wrong--just as they were six years ago prior to the Lebanon withdrawal. They are land fetishists, purely and simply, and they are in the minority. Israel is on an unstoppable course to withdraw from the sh'takhim and all the armchair generals, largely from the US can do nothing but watch and weep. The rest of us--vast majority of Jews and Israelis, as well as Palestinians--will celebrate with great joy.

It was an absolute disaster for Israel in a "grand strategic" sense. The withdrawal SHOULD have been the basis for a diplomatic offensive re Israeli goodwill toward Arabs, as Sharon successfully did in Gaza. It SHOULD have been used to put incredible pressure on Syria/Hizballah to withdraw as well. The withdrawal SHOULD have included shelter and safety for Israel's allies. Instead, it was badly screwed up and degenerated into chaos. And the result of that was that Arafat and Hamas decided that Israel could be beaten via terror tactics. Arafat immediately started making plans for the 2nd intifadah, BASED ON WHAT HE HAD OBSERVED OF THE LEBANON WITHDRAWAL. Of course, Arafat was wrong and HAMAS are delusional, and between them they have virtually destroyed Palestinian society. But the lesson needs to be that Israel needs to think through the different ways in which players perceive its actions. It's worth noting that Hizballah is not Islamic Jihad. It doesn't have to be; it can use Islamic Jihad to carry out terror attacks. Hizballah is not HAMAS. Their styles and behavior are different, though they are both delusional aggressors at heart. The irony re Hizballah is that the more weapons it accumulates, the more likely Israel is to remove all of the gloves and treat it as an enemy state. And the more Israel does that, the more cautious Hizballah must be, lest it drag Israel into an all-out war that Hizballah will NOT win, which could remove it from the picture entirely.

I do indeed watch and weep. Your celebrations will be short lived. I only hope that these celebrations will not give way to mourning. You see Michael, celebrations are only for those who want to celebrate whereas mourning includes all of us. I do hope that I am wrong and you are right. I fear the opposite.

We all know that the withdrawal from Lebanon portrayed Hezbollah as liberators and heros. Who said there was a victory last Sunday and how? Is burning the Lebanese south a victory? We have tried that twice in the past and it turned out against us. The victory is when we convince our Northern neighbours that we do not have aggressive intentions against them as we always did. The victory is when Northern people live in peace. Hezbollah has proved that they have missiles that can reach deep in Israel with high accuracy and efficiency. They have also proved that they use these missiles for defence. Since the withdrawal, it was always IDF who initiated fire. Let us stop this insanity. We also need to hold back Mossad from carrying out useless assassinations especially inside Lebanon as they did last Friday. We do not need to give them reasons to bomb Northern targets.

Hizballah needs to justify its existence by staging clashes with Israel, so when Israel attacked Ahmad Jibril's deserted offices Hizballah found it a good time to prove themselves as "Defenders of Lebanon" they sacrifized 10 men to guarantee their future, besides, Hizballah's popularity rises with each clash it makes with Israel, and those 10 men would be replaced by 100 new recrutes thanks to Hizballah's actions.

I just want to tell you that your IDF did not win anything this sunday. your IDF attacked civilians, injured a 12 years old girl and destroyed few houses. while Hizb Allah did attack 2 important military targets. your IDF ceased fire just after that :) let this be a lesson for you, dont try to attack lebanon again. what you saw sunday is just a downpayment of what you deserve. we are very able to defend our country if the morons of the IDF want to try again. your IDF use their high technology to attack civilians like what happened in KANA.

You use the first person plural throughout. Who exactly are "we" ?

You must be....because I doubt hizballah terrorists waste their time on talkbacks.

Barak and look how people hate him now he may be a dictatorial arrogant little man but his a genius of a dictatorial arrogant little man he sees things 10 or 15 steps ahead everyone else only looking at what happen right now, never mind tomorrow

.. and obviously a part of Islamic infection.. Interesting, that even such clear BS could leave some people puzzled. There's one Islamic clown in London, I think he's from Al-Kuds and often appears on BBC - that is his favorite style - "WE", biased language, conspiracies etc. But much more skillful work, sorry #7. Unfortunately #7 I forgot his name - he has kinda protuberant eyes and cockroache moustache? - I think you understood - you must know his name. So look some BBC24, read articles, improve your skills; what you posted today is very weak.

Civilian casualties at Kana happened because hizballah terrorists used civilians as human shields. The civilians in southern Lebanon would be wise to dump the murderous hizballah terror thugs who place no value at all on the sanctity of human life.

Including 2 commanders - hahahahahah - Die, bastards, die -and get your 72 sluts in hell

Israel can strike back harder than before, but can not destroy a syrian radar system for example, as it did in the past,in order to send a powerfull message to the lebanese. Syria is out of Lebanon.

great article, by withdrawing to 1967 and getting the heck out of the west bank, israel regains moral ground and can respond to attacks to defend herself. The world just needs israel to respect the selfdetermination of the palestinians in the west bank and then the region can move on towards a better future.

Dear Yakov from Israel and Vorax from wherever. Do you think that all citizens of Israel are aggressive like you? Please forward all your insults to my email londonecho@hotmail.co.uk I bet that neither of you has ever lived in the North. Why cant understand that the current attitude in dealing with Lebanon had led to nothing and will lead to nothing as well. People want peace and it is only peace that will make Israel survive the reverse immigration. No need to carry out any operation across borders.

To the outsiders like me, it is clear that Hezbollah did kick Israeli arse a few years ago. Hezbollah is armed by Syria and Iran. It refuses to disarm. Israel has already suffered one defeat at the hands of Hezbollah. The group is a thorn in Israeli side. So far Israeli forces have been unable to distroy or dislodge them from their bases.

Mr. Shelah, Now, after the war when everything you wrote about Lebanon retreat is seems to be wrong . Are you planning to write anything ? I searched and searched but could not find anything from you since the war started. Please write your analysis ,as I also wanted to beleive that Israel's moves could lead to peace ,instead the very existence of the stae is in peril.