[lbo-talk] Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV survived attacks

Joel Schalit managingeditor at tikkun.org
Sun Aug 27 13:39:09 PDT 2006


Hey Marvin - I have to disagree. (See Jim Farmelant's response, which I concur with). The only thing I would add is that the Israelis clearly weren't prepared to fight this war. Despite their widescale damage they caused to Lebanon, they'd have far more to lose by striking Iran so boldly, even if by just attacking their embassy. If they could teach the Iranians a lesson by destroying Hezbollah, so be it. During the second Lebanon war, this was, for all intents and purposes, their strategy.

Don't be surprised how stupid Israel's leadership was (and remains) during the conflict. If they could have obtained Nasrallah's head, they would have, irrespective of the consequences.

On Aug 27, 2006, at 1:23 PM, Marvin Gandall wrote:


> Joel Schalit wrote:
>
>> I hear tell from various sources that Al-Manar had a backup studio
>> operating out of the Iranian embassy in Beirut, which is where
>> Nasrallah is
>> alleged to have sat out the war. One can understand why the
>> Israelis would
>> not target said building.
> ==============================
> It's not quite as self-evident to me, Joel, why the Israelis would
> balk at
> doing so. There's a whole body of opinion which thinks Israel is just
> itching to have a go at Iran, and if Israeli intelligence knew this
> was
> where Nasrallah and Al-Manar were holed up, and blew up the place,
> wouldn't
> this have restored domestic and international credibility to Israel's
> military prowess, which took an incredible beating during the war?
> For sure,
> the effect on its morale and on that of its enemies would have been
> different than Qana, at any rate.
>
> Even assuming Israel wouldn't have wanted to incite a wider war
> over it, I
> doubt the Iranians would have been provoked to start one either. What
> reprisals could they, in fact, have taken which would have
> outweighed the
> value of the strike to the Israelis - closing the Hormuz strait
> (unlikely)?
> Some missiles hitting Tel Aviv? As for making Nasrallah a martyr, he
> couldn't be more popular than he is now anyway.
>
>
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