Israel in Lebanon: I love it when a plan comes together!

It has been revealed that Israel's disproportionate use of military force against Hezbullah and the Lebanese people was planned a few years ago. Historicallly, exchanges between captured soldiers and Lebanese prisoners (abducted by Israeli Army when it illegally occupied Lebanon between 1982-2000) were very common under previous Israeli Governments.

Israel saw Hezbullah grow in power and popularity. Hezbullah represented the views and support of all of south Lebanon. Hezbullah are democratically elected into the Lebanese parliament, they provide social programmes to the area. The military arm of Hezbullah continues to strive in their goals of reclaiming Lebanese lands still to this day occupied by the Israelis (Shebaa Farms) and continued efforts to get Lebanese prisoners (in Israeli jails) released.

When Hezbollah kidnapped the two Israeli soldiers, the Israeli military reacted almost instantly. "Of all of Israel's wars since 1948, this was the one for which Israel was most prepared," said Gerald Steinberg, professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University. "In a sense, the preparation began in May 2000, immediately after the Israeli withdrawal, when it became clear the international community was not going to prevent Hezbollah from stockpiling missiles and attacking Israel. By 2004, the military campaign scheduled to last about three weeks that we're seeing now had already been blocked out and, in the last year or two, it's been simulated and rehearsed across the board."

More than a year ago, a senior Israeli army officer began giving PowerPoint presentations, on an off-the-record basis, to U.S. and other diplomats, journalists and think tanks, setting out the plan for the current operation in revealing detail. Under the ground rules of the briefings, the officer could not be identified.

In his talks, the officer described a three-week campaign: The first week concentrated on destroying Hezbollah's heavier long-range missiles, bombing its command-and-control centers, and disrupting transportation and communication arteries. In the second week, the focus shifted to attacks on individual sites of rocket launchers or weapons stores. In the third week, ground forces in large numbers would be introduced, but only in order to knock out targets discovered during reconnaissance missions as the campaign unfolded. There was no plan, according to this scenario, to reoccupy southern Lebanon on a long-term basis.

Well, it’s been almost a month now and everything is going to plan! There have been a lot of unnecessary deaths (on both sides), a lot of people have become homeless, Lebanese infrastructure has become non-existent, and Lebanon has become an environmental disaster.

According to a poll released by the "Beirut Center for Research and Information" on 26 July during 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, 87 percent of Lebanese support Hezbollah's fight with Israel, a rise of 29 percent on a similar poll conducted in February. More striking, however, is the level of support for Hezbollah's resistance from non-Shiite communities.

Eighty percent of Christians polled supported Hezbollah along with 80 percent of Druze and 89 percent of Sunnis. while according to another poll, from July 2005, 74 percent of Christian Lebanese viewed Hezbollah as a resistance organization.