Israel has been unable to decimate ...

Israel has been unable to decimate Hezbollah and stop its rain of rocket leading a former defense minister, a former intelligence official and others to bring to an end that Israel underestimated the militants and are paying the price for a strategic be stupid

Israel's official line is that Hezbollah is being defanged. "We have made a part of progress in terms of destroying Hezbollah's capabilities," said Daniel Ayalon, Israeli ambassador to Washington.

further Israel's armchair quarterbacks are clearly doubtful.

"Israel is far from a decisive victory and its main objectives have not been met" military analyst Zeev Schiff wrote in the Israeli daily Haaretz.

Amos Harel, a Haaretz colleague, portented whether the Israeli army had failed. He dismissed the assertion at Lt. Gen. Dani Halutz, Israeli army chief of staff, that the air force had hit greatest in number of Hezbollah's command-and-control centers and diminished its long- and medium-range missiles.

A POORLY EXECUT CAMPAIGN

"One thinks that if Israelis had been asked forward July 12 whether it was possible that Hezbollah would shell the north for sum of two units weeks without the [Israeli Defense Force] being able to stop it, greatest in number of them would have replied in the negative," Harel wrote

Israel's battle plan hanged on air power, although many military clevers have said that strategy almost not ever works on its own. further subsequent small infantry strikes have not worked either.

Moshe Arens, a former Israeli defense minister, said the campaign has been poorly execut "This will be a disaster for Israel," Arens, a former ambassador to the United States, was quot as saying in the Israeli pres He said Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah "will be seen in the world as someone who fired thousands of Katyushas forward Israel communities for weeks and came without unscathed."

Arens also said Israel now may have to change its strategy and launch a large mould invasion. "I think that without significantly large clod troops being used, we're not going to reach the launching sites," he said. "And if we don't reach the launching sites, the rocket will continue coming."

According to a Guardian report from a Hezbollah redoubt in the toward the south of Tyre, the militant fighters are extremely disciplined.

'BEST ARAB TROOPS'

"We stay impose and we don't move till we achieve our orders, and this is with what intent we are not like any other militia," undivided of the fighters said from inside a well-furnished apartment upon the outskirts of Tyre.

Yossi Alpher, a member of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, said not long ago that Israel's current Lebanon campaign is harder than anticipated.

"I dare say, based onward what we've seen so far, these may be the best Arab bands we've ever faced."

In the Sunday Times, Sheik Naim Qassem, Hezbollah's secondary in command, said the group's ability to stockpile arms and build bins in the last six years have been elucidation "If it was not for these preparations, Lebanon would have been defeated within hours," he said.

Israeli Capt. Doron Spielman said Hezbollah used the time since Israeli soldiers withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000 to fortify.

"They're well trained, well equipped, and ready to die," he said, "as can been seen from the exceedingly small number of prisoners taken at Israeli forces."

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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