Word: hizballah
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This is urgent because Islamic extremists--from al-Qaeda to Hizballah to Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad--have gained great advantage from the anti-American anger in the Arab and Muslim world that the Gaza crisis has brought to a boil. They had feared that Obama, with his appealing narrative and middle name, would calm the waters and so dilute their influence. They now see an opportunity in the Gaza crisis to brand Obama as no different from Bush...
...currently operating on the ground in Gaza are supplied to remain there for between one and three days, after which they'd have to be rotated out - and the fact that many of those reserve troops will be deployed along the northern border with Lebanon is intended to let Hizballah know that Israel has the resources to respond forcefully to any attempt by the Lebanese radical group to attack in solidarity with its allies in Gaza. The reserves also give Israel the capacity to free more combat units from duties elsewhere, like guarding settlements...
...case of Hizballah during Israel's 2006 offensive in Lebanon, Hamas has all along believed it will "win" the battle of Gaza simply by remaining intact and on its feet. Although Israel has no intention of taking control of Gaza and getting stuck there, the purpose of its ground invasion is to make Hamas commanders believe that even their goal of surviving and remaining in control of Gaza after Operation Cast Lead is slipping beyond their grasp, in the hope that this will make the organization more likely to accept Israel's truce terms. The armed "negotiation" over Gaza...
...Unlike the botched invasion of Lebanon in 2006, when Israel set itself the unattainable goal of eliminating the military capability of Hizballah, this time Barak and Olmert have made clear that their objective is not to wipe out Hamas, but instead to force the radical group to accept a durable cease-fire on Israel's terms. While they hope to weaken Hamas, Israel's leaders are aware that a military campaign is unlikely to destroy the organization that remains the most popular political force in Gaza. Any attempt to do so would require not only a massive invasion...
...cooperation with Israel, Abbas knows that Hamas could easily take control of the West Bank too. The longer the Israeli offensive continues, the greater the damage to all the Arab moderates the U.S. has been hoping to rally in an alliance against the likes of Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hizballah. Knowledge that pummeling by the Israelis will shift more political support from moderates to Hamas is no doubt fueling diplomatic efforts to force a truce...