You don't pay attention, Israel doesn't hold back just because someone asked them too. They hold back because they need the US for aid, both military and financial. Israel has very selective hearing. Total deafness on West Bank settlements. Bat like hearing if a US official says something not considered hard line enough to the Arabs.
Nutty's bluff and posturing attempts to make it sound as if Israel is being 'pressured' and Iran isn't. That is 180 from the truth.
The 2006 Incursion saw Israel attack Lebanon's civilian infrastructure in a mindless assault on everything from hospitals to water treatment plants in a display pure vindictiveness.
Also saw Israel's vaunted Ground Forces bogged down in the Lebanese 'mud' as Anti-tank strongpoints swarmed the poorly trained tank crews. To quote Joel Himelfarb," The pull out from Lebanon descended into chaos, as Israeli troops staggered back across the border, telling reporters that their military equipment and training had proven useless against Hezbollah, and it's Lebanese allies."
Mossad Chief Meir Degan and Head of Shin Bet Yuval Diskin- "the war was a national catastrophe and Israel suffered a critical blow."
Israel needs an emergency resupply of precision air munitions from the USofA as they ran through their supply without the desired results.
Despite repeated assaults Bint Jbeil never fell to the Israelis. An unheard of successful resistance.
10,000 Israeli ground troops against 3,000 Hezbollah and in three weeks of ground war the Israelis could barely makes a 4 mile dent with key points on the border still in Hezbollah hands. Reserve troops with little if any training, little food and poor equipment refused to carry out simple orders.
24 Merkava 4 tanks of the 401 Brigade attempt to cross the Wadi al-Saluki, 11 are hit, commanders from company to Bn are killed or wounded, infantry pinned down and can't support.
Brig. General Zuckerman in command of the Northern reserve armored div resigns after his units dismal failure. He cites poor training of his soldiers.
Far from leading from the front, out of 11 Brigade commanders only one actually set foot on Lebanese soil.
Hezbollah fired 250 rockets into Israel in the closing hours of the war, so the goal of ending the rocket attacks was never achieved.
According to Israel's Winograd report Hezbollah fired 3,790 rockets killing 42 and wounding 4,262 with an additional 2,773 requiring treatment for anxiety.
It quote IAF planner Ron Tira -
"Israel failed on a strategic, operational, and tactical levels. Israel did not succeed in generating decapitation, paralysis, blindness or any other effect that substantially harms the will or functioning of the organization's command and control echelon. Nor did it succeed in suppressing the operational effectiveness of Hizbollah's combat groups and light Surface to Surface rocket formations. At the end of the day, Israel did not upset the equilibrium of Hizbollah's system and did not create a sense of helplessness and distress, nor did it push the organization toward collapse and a drive to end the war immediately on Israel's terms."
Source, Matt Mathews at the US Army Combined Arms Center.
So for all the munitions used, the destruction of so much of Lebanon's civilian infrastructure, and civilian deaths- Israeli's military objectives were not achieved. Failure in simple terms. While the USofA won a huge victory in Iraq over a very powerful conventional force with far fewer causalities for the forces used, Israel struggled with Hezbollah uncowed and earning much coup in the Middle East.
Israel isn't the Israel of the 6 Day War.
As long as Israel continues to occupy the West Bank peace will not come. If you think Israeli omas risk death now, let Israel bomb Iran and see the blowback in retaliation.
