Up in Flames
With Hezbollah's rockets still falling, Israel is not nearly finished with its efforts to remove the threat
Israel. The kidnapping of its soldiers was a useful pretext for launching an operation that military leaders had been eager to pursue for several years. Not only was Hezbollah building up its stocks of rockets, but Israelis are also worried by a growing perception in the Arab world that its withdrawal from southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip was a sign of weakness.
Israeli military brass admit privately that they cannot hope to completely destroy Hezbollah, a goal they were unable to achieve during an 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon. Instead, the Army is working fast to try to eliminate as many rocket launchers as it can before a potential cease-fire. Before it's over, Israel aims to weaken the militant group by imposing a no man's land half a mile deep into Lebanon. Instead of occupying the land, Israel will send in bulldozers to "flatten the area and remove any sign of a Hezbollah outpost and even trees so that Hezbollah can't enter again," says an Israeli military official. One other option: carve out a deeper buffer zone with a ground invasion.
Palestinians. Even after Israel opened up a second front against Hezbollah, it continued its three-week-old assault on the Palestinian militant group Hamas. This also began with a kidnapping of an Israeli soldier, but it has become very much the forgotten front of this war. In fact, Israel's Army has been moving in and out of the Gaza Strip and even opened up another front on the West Bank last week. Israeli soldiers raided a Gaza refugee camp for two straight days last week, while besieging a Palestinian security post in the West Bank suspected of being used by Hamas militants.
Ironically, Hezbollah, which claims to have acted in sympathy with the Palestinians, has succeeded mostly in overshadowing them completely, leaving Israel with a relatively free hand to move against Hamas. More than 100 Palestinians have been killed so far. "No one is noticing what is happening to us," complains a Palestinian legislator. "Everyone has forgotten about us."
THE REGIONAL POWERS
How the key Mideast nations in the conflict shape up
| IRAN | SYRIA | ISRAEL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| TOTAL POPULATION | 69 mil. | 18.9 mil. | 6.2 mil. |
| MILITARY EXPENDITURES | $4.3 bil.(2003 est.) | $858 mil.* | 9.45 bil. (2005 est.) |
| AS PERCENT OF GDP | 3.3% | 5.9% | 7.7% |
| MILITARY MANPOWER TOTAL ACTIVE | 540,000 | 296,000 | 168,000 |
| TOTAL RESERVE | 350,000 | 354,000 | 408,000 |
| MAIN BATTLE TANKS | 1,613 | 1,613 | 3,090 |
| ATTACK AIRCRAFT | 163+ | 520 | 399 |
| NUCLEAR WEAPONS | Not yet | No | Yes |
*Based on official budget data (fiscal year 2000) that may understate spending.
Sources: Center for Strategic and International Studies, CIA's World Factbook
With Mitchell Prothero in Beirut, Orly Halpern in Haifa, Israel and Thomas Omestad in Washington
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