JERUSALEM — Israel's military officials fear the operation against Hizbullah may end before it can succeed.
Senior military sources expressed concerns that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's
suspension of air operations over Lebanon would prematurely end the war
against Hizbullah. In an assertion echoed by several government ministers,
the sources assessed that Olmert would be unable to resist U.S. pressure to
extend the suspension when it expires on Aug. 2.
"I am worried that in another two days, the international community will
then ask for another two days," Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon said.
On Monday, Olmert portrayed the Israeli campaign as successful. He said
Israeli air and ground strikes destroyed Hizbullah's medium-range rocket
batteries and damaged command and control capabilities.
"We succeeded in damaging the organization's long-range missile system
deep inside Lebanon, and we will continue to do that," Olmert said. "We
destroyed Hizbullah's command and control systems, as well as its
headquarters, and damaged its infrastructures. Hizbullah's military bases
and compounds in Beirut, Balbek and other places no longer look the same."
On Monday, a handful of Hizbullah rockets reached Israel, all of them
landing in open areas. The Iranian-sponsored Shi'ite militia renewed rocket
and mortar fire on Tuesday.
Israel responded with air strikes in Lebanon, including missions by
attack unmanned aerial vehicles. The military reported the death of 20
Hizbullah fighters amid heavy fighting in Lebanese Shi'ite villages near the
Israeli border.
"Hizbullah is not running away," [Res.] Col. Koby Merom, a former senior
officer in Northern Command, said. "They are a guerrilla force."
In his address, Olmert said Israel would prevent the resupply of
Hizbullah. He said the military would no longer "tolerate the transfer of
weapons to Hizbullah and we will not allow the organization to regain its
capabilities."
Military sources said Olmert's order to suspend air operations has
hampered the war in Lebanon. The sources said that under the 48-hour
suspension, which began on early Monday and proposed by Vice Premier Shimon
Peres, Israeli aircraft would not attack bridges, roads, infrastructure or
buildings used by Hizbullah.
Instead, fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft would be used to support
infantry units in southern Lebanon. They said the aircraft would help
bolster efforts to form a buffer zone of between two and four kilometers
north of the Israeli-Lebanese border.
"The air component can't stand by itself," [Res.] Maj. Gen. Yiftah
Ron-Tal, former head of the Ground Forces Command, said. "I hope there is a
window of opportunity for ground operations to succeed."
On Tuesday, the Cabinet's security committee approved the resumption of
air operations in Lebanon for Aug. 2. Ministers said the panel approved
military plans to widen the ground war in southern Lebanon to the Litani
River, 15 kilometers from Israel, on the assessment that a United Nations
Security Council ceasefire resolution would be approved within 48 hours.
"There was a [Cabinet] decision to free the political echelon to
consider all options," Justice Minister Haim Ramon said. "It depends on the
circumstances."
The sources said the General Staff presented several options for the
expansion of ground operations in southern Lebanon. They said the Cabinet --
some of whose members have criticized Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz for
playing down the military's achievements -- selected the most modest of the
options.
"This war cannot end in a stalemate," Knesset member Ephraim Sneh, a
senior member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said.
"We can't achieve these goals without the use of additional force and time.
The public does not want its fallen to have died in vain."
