Has Israel Finally Met Its Match?
The Meaning of Hizbullah's Big Win
By M. SHAHID ALAM
On January 31, 2008, when the Winograd Commission submitted its final report on the Second Lebanese War of July 2006, this was a first in Israeli history: a report on why the Israeli military had failed in a war.
The Winograd Commission offers a quite honest appraisal of some aspects of the July 2006 War. [1] It acknowledges that it was "a serious missed opportunity." Israel had "initiated a long war, which ended without its clear military victory (italics added)." The Commission notes that a militia "of a few thousand men resisted, for a few weeks, the strongest army in the Middle East, which enjoyed full air superiority and size and technology advantages." Nothing could reverse Israel's handicaps: not even a massive ground offensive launched in the last days of the war...
One more "victory" like this second Lebanese war for Nasrallah and he is lost.