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Stakes high for Israel in month-old Lebanon offensive
By Patrick Anidjar
AFP
JERUSALEM
Petroleumworld.com 08 10 06
After a month of fighting, mighty Israel was struggling to keep the upper hand as Hezbollah continued to rain down rockets from Lebanon and inflict heavy troop and civilian losses.
The goals set by the military when it launched its offensive in Lebanon on July 12 -- recovering two captured soldiers and preventing rocket fire on Israel -- have not been achieved.
The Shiite militant group has fired more than 3,000 rockets, sending residents of border areas scurrying away while longer range rockets have also struck towns as a far south as Hadera and Tiberias.
For the first time since the creation of Israel in 1948, an entire town had to be evacuated by the authorities. Military operations alone have cost Israel 1.6 billion dollars while a crippled economy was also losing millions a day.
Hezbollah has continued to wreak havoc despite the 8,000 sorties carried out by the air force, the more than 100,000 artillery shells fired and the raids conducted by the estimated 20,000 troops currently involved in the operation.
Since the start of the offensive -- Israel's largest in a quarter century -- 36 Israeli civilians and 65 troops have been killed.
After meeting sustained resistance from Hezbollah, critics charged the army was having cold feet and relying too heavily on its air force, prompting the military establishment to heed growing calls for stepping up the ante.
On Wednesday, the security cabinet dismissed concerns of a soaring death toll in the army's ranks and approved the army's plan to go for the jugular by sending ground troops deep into southern Lebanon.
According to a high-ranking military official, "it will take around a week to reach the Litani and between four and six weeks to clean up the entire area that lies to the south of the river."
"This war was imposed on us, it is our obligation to win it," Justice Minister Haim Ramon said.
Despite criticism levelled at the inexperienced Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defence Minister Amir Peretz, Israeli public opinion remained largely supportive of the army and the continuation of the offensive.
Despite international condemnation of the hundreds of civilian deaths its offensive has caused, Israel looked poised to move into Lebanon and unilaterally draw the borders of the buffer zone it will eventually hand over to an international force.
Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said publicly that this war was "more important than all the others that came before it, except maybe the independence war" of 1948.
To achieve his goals, Halutz appointed his deputy to take over from the northern command chief in a bid to restore the Israeli army's deterrent force and curtail Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah's growing prestige in the region.
Military officials admitted they were surprised by the ability of Hezbollah, whose guerrilla attacks had already forced Israel out of southern Lebanon in 2000 after 18 years of occupation.
According to specialist publications, the Israeli military boasts some 4,000 tanks, 470 fighter jets, 15 ships and three submarines as well as 600,000 men, including reservists.
For its part, the Hezbollah is believed to have between 600 and 1,000 fighters, another 3,000 to 5,000 available fighters, 10,000 reservists and an arsenal of rockets.
Despite the discrepancy, Israeli commentators argue there is reason for concern.
"As long as Nasrallah is live and kicking, the risk of a process that will threaten the existence of the state is real," wrote editorialist Ben Caspit in the Maariv daily.
Israel has been at war for a month, which is longer than the 1973 Middle East war that lasted just 20 days.
AFP 10 0317 GMT 08 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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