As highly capable (but small) militaries throughout history have found when fighting a more numerous but less capable foe: a couple of mistakes and it is all downhill from then on. In that vein, read this excellent article by Amal Saad-Ghorayeb in the Washington Post:
Hezbollah is a popular social movement, and it is well aware that it can be destroyed only if the Israeli army is prepared to commit mass murder, genocide, ethnic cleansing -- use whatever unpalatable term you will -- against the entire Shiite community...
In this light, Hezbollah's face-off with Israel is not only a defensive war of survival (in response to the declared Israeli and U.S. objective of eliminating the organization), but also an attempt to shatter the myth of Israeli invincibility (which explains why Israel also views this conflict in existential terms).
Comments