[Marxism] Has Israel finally met its match?

[Dbachmozart@xxxxxxx]

The meaning of Hizbullah's big win
 
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The Israeli setbacks in the July War of 2006,  then, represents a paradigm 
shift ­ not something that can be pinned on  careless errors in 
decision-making. Unlike the Arab armies in the past, the  Hizbullah had fought 
a people's 
war. It neutralized Israel's technological  superiority by deploying its 
mobile, elusive, disciplined and skilled guerilla  detachments ­ not a 
centralized, conventional army ­ to fight the  Israelis. 
The Hizbullah fights in small groups, it is  evasive, it is secretive, it 
owns its terrain, it trains, it has high morale,  and it enjoys complete 
popular 
support amongst Lebanon's Shi'ites. It can launch  thousands of low-tech 
rockets which rendered sophisticated anti-missile defenses  useless. It has 
also 
acquired and learned to use with great effectiveness  anti-tank missiles that 
make Israel's most advanced tanks vulnerable. They have  successfully targeted 
even Israeli warships. 
If the Hizbullah can extend these advantages, if  it can add shoulder-fired 
anti-aircraft missiles to its arsenal and bring down a  few Israeli helicopters 
and jets, Israel could quickly lose its unchallenged  control over Lebanese 
skies. Israel's daily and wanton violations of Lebanese  airspace would also 
come to an end. 
The Hizbullah offers Israel a new kind of  asymmetric warfare: it combines 
low-tech guerilla tactics with sophisticated  missile and communications 
technology. Understandably, the Israelis find these  Hizbullah achievements 
hard to 
digest. What the world witnessed in Lebanon in  July 2006 were events that 
contain the potential for shifting the balance of  power in the Middle East. 
Earlier, the Iraqi insurgents had demonstrated that  they can make an 
occupation 
­ even by the world's greatest power ­ very  costly. Now, the Hizbullah 
had shown that a disciplined guerilla force, with  access to advanced 
missiles, can repel the most powerful invading  army. 
It appears that the weapons gap that had opened up  in recent decades between 
Western powers and the weaker, technologically  backward nations may be 
closing. How rapidly this happens will depend on the  willingness of Russia, 
China, 
North Korea, Iran ­ with other countries  getting ready to join them 
­ to make these weapons available to movements of  resistance. 
Alternatively, 
if these countries hesitate, the arms smugglers will  step in to provide this 
service. Once anti-tank, anti-ship and shoulder-fired  anti-aircraft missiles 
can be bought on the world's illicit arms markets as  readily as AK-47s, this 
will begin to alter the fortunes of resistance movements  battling great 
powers. 
In the late nineteenth century, the advanced  Western nations had opened a 
lethal weapons gap with their automatic weapons:  this gave them a quick, 
nearly 
costless colonization of Africa and Southeast  Asia. When that gap began to 
close in the interwar period, it gave an impetus to  resistance movements in 
Indonesia, Vietnam, Kenya and Algeria.[15] Already  weakened from fighting 
their 
own fratricidal wars, the Western colonial powers  retreated: and the Third 
World was born. 
Will the twenty-first century herald the dawn of  another era of gains for 
movements of resistance across Asia, Africa and Latin  America?
 
full --   _http://counterpunch.org/shahid04142008.html_ 
(http://counterpunch.org/shahid04142008.html) 



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