Israel Masses Tanks, Rockets, Artillery On Northern Border
The TimesOnline reports that the Israeli army is massing on their northern border.
Artillery, rockets, tanks and Humvees are massing on Lebanon's southern border as Israel reveals the true extent of its ambitions. It is determined not merely to punish Hezbollah, but to destroy it once and for all as a military threat.
[...]
"As long as Hezbollah is in the south of Lebanon this will lead to a destabilised region," Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister, told The Times.
[...]
In Maariv, Ben Caspit demanded Churchillian resolve from Israelis facing Hezbollah rockets -- about 80 missiles hit Israeli towns yesterday, killing a woman and her five-year-old grandson and wounding more than 40 people,. "Not for naught is a parallel being made here between terminology from the World War Two period, the tenacious British resistance against Hitler's blitz. This threat must be abolished. Nasrallah must die."
A full invasion appears imminent.
UPDATE: The Washington Post's World Opinion Roundup has a slew of links to global news opinions. In contradiction to the presence of a mass of Israeli artillery at their southern borders, Lebanese and other experts in international affairs seem to think Israel will ultimately agree to a prisoner swap. From a piece in the Jordan Times:
"The Israelis have no other option but to swap. Hizbollah does not give in very easily," said Timur Goksel, a professor at the American University of Beirut who was a spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon for many years.
I suppose it makes sense to anticipate such a deal, but I wonder if those who make that suggestion are full cognizant of Israel's apparent determination to destroy Hezbollah, and Hezbollah's, and Iran's, determination to destroy Israel. This isn't ordinary power politics anymore.
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