Word: jerusalem
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...Israel the latest hostage taking also represented an opportunity. For almost six years since Israel had quit southern Lebanon, the Israelis watched Hizballah build fortifications along the border and stockpile rockets and missiles. Of late, Hizballah's charismatic leader, Hasan Nasrallah, had explicitly threatened to kidnap Israeli soldiers, and Jerusalem believes it thwarted at least two attempts by his fighters to do just that. Army brass had urged the political leadership to respond with precisely the kind of campaign Olmert has initiated, and Israeli forces practiced just such an operation in a tabletop exercise as recently as two months...
...hard. The bombardment has driven an estimated half a million Lebanese from their homes; many will have only rubble to return to. The strikes on infrastructure are meant not only to prevent Syria and Iran from resupplying Hizballah with rockets and launchers but also to warn Lebanon that Jerusalem can set back the country's restoration even further if it chooses. Of the estimated 300 who have died so far in Lebanon, most have been civilians. For its part, Hizballah was taken aback by Israel's ferocity. In a TV interview last week, Nasrallah lamented, "Tell me about...
...looking for a way out, Hizballah launched an escalation of its own, shooting longer-range missiles than it had ever used, forcing the 1 million Israelis in the north of the country--a sixth of the nation's population--into bomb shelters and paralyzing that region's economy. Jerusalem believes Hizballah is serving Iran's interests, perhaps to detract attention from Tehran's controversial nuclear program. Says Avi Dichter, Israel's Minister of Public Security: "We thought Hizballah would not sacrifice Lebanon on the Iranian altar. They did it very clearly, and it was contrary to Israel's assessments...
...clever and potent adversary. Israeli forces last week dropped 23 tons of bombs on a bunker in Beirut where they believed he was hiding. Nasrallah appeared later in the taped TV interview, disappointing Israeli officials, who said they were still after him. Nasrallah's death would bring Jerusalem a huge symbolic victory. But Israel may eventually regret raising expectations that it will get him. (Ask George Bush about the wisdom of calling for Osama bin Laden's head.) "If Nasrallah is alive at the end of this and gives one of his speeches, it cannot look like an Israeli victory...
...FACTOR THAT TRULY DISTINGUISHES this summer's crisis from earlier ones is the realization that Iran is a central player. Among Israelis, it is generally assumed that Hizballah had Iran's encouragement when it kidnapped the soldiers. And that view isn't held just in Jerusalem. "There isn't the slightest degree of ambiguity or doubt as to Iran's role in this," says a French foreign-affairs official. "How much coincidence could there be in Hizballah kidnapping the Israeli soldiers on the same date that ministers met in Paris to decide what measures to take on the Iranian nuclear...