Israel's Ignominious Defeat

Much has been writing in the Western media about Israel's ignominious defeat, yet scant attention has been paid to the enormity and implications of Hizbullah's victory. Yet ignoring the totality of Hizbullah victory is to ignore the new political realities in the region. This almost exclusion of Hizbullah is symptomatic of the inherent bias, chauvinism and myopia that abounds through Western journalism.

Israel's stated aims were the return of the two soldiers captured by Hizbullah in South Lebanon, the destruction of Hizbullah, the capture or assassination of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. None of these objectives were fulfilled. Nor were the real strategic objectives.

Although many Zionist undoubtely welcomed the opportunity to avenge the humiliating defeat that Hizbullah inflicted upon Israel in 2000, this was not the reason Israel sought its destruction. Hizbullah stand is the way of the longstanding Zionist ambition to annex South Lebanon. Whilst ultimately, the Zionist State seeks the land from "The River to the Sea", it has long viewed the River Jordan to the Litani river as natural borders and a stepping stone to that objective. Hence the Israeli invasion, ethnic-cleansing and annexation of Southern Lebanon were planned over a year in advance. In fact this plan is envisaged in UN resolution 1559.

In order to achieve this aim the destruction of Hizbullah was a the destruction of Hizbullah was a necessary tactical objective. Moreover, the destruction of Hizbullah was seen for the Zionist in Washington as a proxy war with Iran, inflicting a defeat upon Hizbullah was seen as an opportunity to arrest the growth of Shia influence in the region. Hence the United States was actively supporting Israel in this war.

The consequence of 34 days of war is that the Zionist vision is in utter disarray; not only did Israel fail to achieve any of its objectives, Hizbullah emerged from the battlefield triumphant and emboldened, its popularity and influence increased exponentially, which in turn strengthens Iran and Syria's influence in the region and diminishes that of the United States.

Even Israel's battlefield losses exceed Hizbullah's: Israel acknowledges 117 of its soldiers were killed in combat with Hizbullah and a further 450 were injured, this number excludes their special forces which would take the figure to over a 150 dead. Whereas 68 Hizbullah fighters killed during the conflict. However, more significantly the Zionist regime killed over a 1,000 civillians and wounded a further 3,700; displaced 900,000 Lebanese and 60,000 foreigners; destroyed 15,000 homes; and caused $2.5 billion worth of damage to Lebanon's infrastructure, not including the losses to Lebanon's economy. In so doing, Israel has earned the enmity of the World, thus making their defeat all the more ignominious.

Israel's international credibility is now in tatters. Conversely, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Hizbullah are being feted throughout the Muslim World. To ignore the scale of this victory is delusional.