Israel won a grand victory over Hezbollah, if the reports are to be believed:
It was later reported that the Israel Air Force attacked and destroyed 59 stationary medium-range Fajr rocket launchers positioned throughout southern Lebanon. Operation Density allegedly only took 34 minutes to carry out but was the result of six years of intelligence gathering and planning. Between half and two-thirds of Hezbollah medium-range rocket capability was estimated by the IDF to have been wiped out. According to Israeli journalists Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff the operation was “Israel’s most impressive military action” and a “devastating blow for Hezbollah”. In the coming days IAF allegedly also attacked and destroyed a large proportion of Hezbollah’s long range Zelzal-2 missiles.
“All the long-range rockets have been destroyed,” chief of staff Halutz allegedly told the Israeli government, “We’ve won the war.”
Those reports are 18 years old, from the prelude to the failed 2006 ground invasion of Lebanon. Assuming that a war is all but over in the aftermath of an initial series of air strikes is reliably wrong. Eliminating Nasrallah is an achievement that one presumes would be positive for the Israelis, but does anyone seriously believe that if Hezbollah was to eliminate Netanyahu, the war would be over?
