[A-List] Re: Settler Apartheid State in Palestine's Last Chance

[CeJ <jannuzi@xxxxxxxxx>]

Please note change in title.

Quote from the 'Israel' piece:

> > There are many reasons the Israelis lost the war in Lebanon, but there is
general agreement within Israel that the war ended in disaster and the deterrent
value of the once unbeatable, super-armed IDF gravely diminished in the entire
Arab world for the first time since 1947. But the Israelis were defeated for
many of the same reasons that have caused the Americans to lose the wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan - and in Vietnam as well. Both their doctrine and equipment were
ill suited for the realities they confronted. There was no centralized command
structure to destroy but small groups, lightly armed, mobile, and decentralized,
able to harass and ultimately prevail. The Hezbollah also had highly effective
Russian anti-tank missiles, and the IDF admits that "several dozen" tanks were
put out of commission, if not destroyed, including the Merkava Mark IV, which
Israel claims in the best protected tank in the world - and which it seeks to
export. >>

I have heard many dozens of destroyed tanks. I'd be interested in some
'hard' data on the helicopters shot down, too.

This myth about IDF invincibility keeps getting repeated. As I wrote
before to this list, the IDF got their asses handed to them in their
last war with Egypt, including a lost battle with Syria too--and the
recent successful Hezbollah's and Sunni group's tactics were taken
straight out of the war plan that Sadat used. That includes the
Russian anti-tank missiles. If they were effective in 1973, what made
anyone think they wouldn't find their marks against the VERY EXPENSIVE
Merks? The use of small groups able to take the initiative is the key,
because the more you rely on a centralized command and communications
with it, the more aerial bombardment makes it fail. This is why Iraq
had a formidable military machine against third-rate opponents but
couldn't work against the US. And this is why the Iraqi Resistance has
put more hurt on the US than anything the Baathist military machine
could do.

What is radically different about Hezbollah is its ecumenicalism with
the Sunni in Lebanon, at least in terms of politics and resistance.

CJ