Israel’s Missed Boat in Lebanon
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
May 18, 2008
Sunday night, May 11, the Israeli army was poised to strike Hizballah. The Shiite militia was winding up its takeover of West Beirut and battling pro-government forces in the North. When he opened the regular cabinet meeting Sunday, May 11, prime minister Ehud Olmert had already received the go-ahead from Washington for a military strike to halt the Hizballah advance. The message said that President George W. Bush would not call off his visit to Israel to attend its 60th anniversary celebrations and would arrive as planned Wednesday, May 14 - even if the Israeli army was still fighting in Lebanon and Hizballah struck back against Tel Aviv and Ben-Gurion airport.
American intelligence estimated that Hizballah was capable of retaliating against northern Israel at the rate of 600 missiles a day.
Olmert, defense minister Ehud Barak and foreign minister Tzipi Lvini, the only ministers in the picture, decided not to intervene in Lebanon’s civil conflict. Iran’s surrogate army consequently waltzed unchecked to its second victory in two years over the United States and Israel.
I really can't say much other than that. As I mentioned a week or so back (see: "Here We Go Again, Lebanon") this was a golden opportunity to further "Western" interests (including those of most of the Lebanese population), and I was not alone in thinking so.
The one scintilla of comfort I can take from this is that the Americans seem (again, unconfirmed reports and all) to have been prepared to back Israel while it did the dirty work it will eventually need to do anyway.
There has been a lot of talk about the future of Israel on its' 60th anniversary. To me, Israel only made it as far as it did by being prepared to put the smack-down on its' enemies, and this recent (last 10 years or so) softening of resolve doesn't bode well for another 60 years.
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