Hezbollah

After Israel's withdrawal from Lebanese occupied territory named the "security zone" on 25 May 2000, Hezbollah was hailed as the victor simply because it was believed they were the sole entity responsible for Israel's departure from Lebanese land. These unfolding events, as well as the many escalations on the international border, where in one incident three IDF soldiers were kidnapped and a number of other wounded or killed in a croos-border raid in the disputed Shebaa farms area on 14 October 2000, the Lebanese government and Parliament voted Hezbollah as the "national resistance", placing full responsibility on it to solely protect the Lebanese border and defend the nation against any Israeli attacks. Which was what they set out to do, until breaking point on 12 July 2006.

The summer Israeli-Hezbollah war in July 2006 sparked by Hezbollah's abduction of 2 Israeli soldiers and leaving 8 others dead. Although at the time a lot of analysts and even Hezbollah's secretary general Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah claimed that the war had already been pre-planned and would have been executed by October that year whether or not Hezbollah attacked or kidnapped. The declaration of war on 13 July 2006 by Ehud Olmert using the Abduction as his excuse was seen as just a pretext for a well, and long, planned operation that would have taken place regardless of Hezbollah's actions.

The claim by these few during - The chief of staff Dan Halutz was forced to resign after the war. - Olmerts ratings were as low as 2% after the war. - Amir Peretz's ratings were 1%. Mr Peretz also claimed during the war that Nasrallah would never forget his name. I doubt he will. - It was the first time that a conflict was called an actual war by many Israeli's. - Askenazi, the new chief of staff, claimed that the IDF would need a very long time to recover its strength for future combats with any force, including Hezbollah. - Israel admitted that more tanks had been damaged or destroyed than previously claimed just after the cease-fire. The new estimate is 100 tanks above the previous claim of 14 tanks. - The majority of public opinion in Israel believes that the IDF lost the war. - Olmert said while testifying in the winongrad commission that everyone who had rallied against Hezbollah and by Israel was a traitor, double faced and back stabber, because, according to Mr Olmert, had the allies been true friends, they would have tried to stop the war in the first 3 days instead of making Israel "crash into Nasrallah's bunkers" - During the war, Israel estimated that 800 Hezbollah fighters were killed. Mathematically, that came out at least 600 people above the maximum estimate concerning the percentage of children (0.33%) and women (40%) killed during the war out of a total of 1050 people could have no way ended up with 800 male Hezbollah fighters being killed in action. - Nasrallah was found to be more trusted by northern Israelis than the Israeli leaderships. - The only man of authority and representation of any country in the world (i.e. president, PM, king, queen) to claim that Israel had genuinely "won" the war was the US President George Bush Jr. Not even the Israeli president nor PM claim that. - It was found during the war that most Hezbollah soldiers had dressed the same uniforms as those of the IDF. This was called a terror tactic, but later on it was revealed that IDF commandos who participated in the Baalbeck raid after the war had dressed up as Lebanese soldiers.

The list goes on. Watch this space because it will be regularly updated. For more information please click [here http://www.slickblog.wordpress.com].