Word: lebanons
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...Israel is well aware that a ground assault is precisely what Hamas wants. There is little the militants can do against Israeli air power, but they believe they can bloody Israel's armored columns and, in what they hope will be a reprise of Hizballah's success in Lebanon in 2006, inflict sufficient damage on the Israeli forces to be able to claim a symbolic victory. For the Israeli public, an outcome that leaves Hamas rule intact in Gaza may be easier to swallow if Israel has not suffered the significant casualties that could result from a ground...
Still, many Israelis believe their "deterrent power," weakened in Lebanon two years ago, will be re-established only if ground troops go in to destroy more of Hamas' infrastructure. Right now, it's not clear whether it is political calculations or simply the weather - which restricts the ability of the Israel Defense Forces to fly ground-support missions - that keeps Israel from sending in its armored columns. Reports in the Israeli media on Tuesday that Israel may hold off on bombing for 48 hours in search of a truce were quickly denied...
...condemnation will grow with the proportions of the conflict: Israeli forces are massing tanks and 6,500 troops for a possible land assault into Gaza. In anticipation, Hamas fighters are believed to be preparing Iraq-style roadside bombs and suicide bombers. Judging by Israel's disastrous 2006 incursion into Lebanon, a ground offensive in Gaza could drag on for weeks. "It will be a war of attrition," a senior Israeli military officer predicted to TIME...
Hamas knows that Israel's military intervention is unlikely to be a ground war to the finish. It will hope that, like Hizballah in Lebanon in 2006, simply surviving an Israeli onslaught will help it emerge politically victorious. Israel will hope to sufficiently bloody the movement to put it on the defensive and make its leaders prioritize their own physical survival over pressing Israel to ease the siege. And hundreds more people could die in the weeks ahead as the two sides look to win the battle of wills. The renewed confrontation is likely to strengthen the far-right forces...
...support is not quite universal. The Israeli strikes have revealed, once again, the stark differences between pro-Western Arab leaders like Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and more radical Arab groups like Hizballah in Lebanon. Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah has slammed the Egyptian government for suggesting that Hamas brought the attack upon itself. In an angry televised speech Sunday, Nasrallah said Cairo was cooperating with Israel and was selling out not only Palestinians but all Arabs. "There are some who speak of Arab silence, but this is wrong," he said. "There is full Arab cooperation, especially by those who have signed...