Israel managed, as a friend put it, to snatch defeat out the jaws of victory. What was accomplished? A leg-tripping of Hamas, worth 3 months of waiting time for it to rebuild, replenish, rejuvenate. At best, this was a skin-peel for the terror group.
There were very few declared objectives for this "war".
Stopping the rockets was the first: Fail.
Returning Shalit as secondary: Fail.
Stopping weapons smuggling: Fail.
And among the unspoken objectives
Significantly strengthen Fatah relative Hamas: Fail.
There might be only one win here -- a win, once again, for the political echelon: Barak/Labor strengthened their polling numbers, and Livni/Kadima shored up theirs.
The country learned much tactically from Leb06; it learned nothing strategically, even less politically. This was just Lebanon v2.1 |