Word: lebanon
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...Israel really believed its fiery campaign against Hizballah in South Lebanon would help turn the local population against the militant Shi'ite group, all indications are that the death and destruction being rained down is having quite the opposite effect. That much was painfully clear Wednesday after an Israeli jet returned to bomb the center of this - until now - relatively safe coastal town for the first time in 10 days, and a new generation of Hizballah supporters was born...
...backers - would likely have a substantial say in determining the nature of the truce it would enforce. Indeed, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, speaking in Rome, urged the inclusion of both Iran and Syria in the search for a deal to permanently end hostilities across the Israel-Lebanon border...
...From the beginning of the current conflict, however, reoccupying southern Lebanon is exactly what Israeli military and political leaders have wanted to avoid. They know better than anyone that Israeli society is not prepared to bear the cost in terms of ongoing casualties and long-term encroachment on the country's standard of living presented by the frequent call-ups of military reservists that a renewed occupation of Lebanon would require. Instead, the Israeli military is looking to redefine victory as the outsourcing of control of southern Lebanon to an international force...
...NATO countries that Israel wants to see populate such a force have no greater appetite than Israel does for a deployment of ground forces in Lebanon. The Europeans are already committed to an increasingly hot counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan, and they're clearly reluctant to send their troops into a confrontation on Israel's behalf with one of the world's most accomplished guerrilla armies - which also happens to have a well-established capacity for transnational terror operations...
...Rome discussion produced no decisive response to the crisis, and the battle in Lebanon will continue to rage for some time yet. But it is becoming clear both on the battlefield and in the diplomatic arena that the U.S. and Israel are unlikely to achieve the knockout blow they'd hoped to deliver against Hizballah. The question that will be settled, both on the battlefield and in the chambers of diplomacy in the coming days, is which side will have to concede more in the cease-fire that will ultimately take shape...