Israel As Amalek

Rashi explains that Amalek's attack effectively "cooled off" the Jewish nation. He gives a parable of a body of very hot water that people are looking at, standing afar, afraid to go in. That is, until someone else goes in first. The first person entering, although himself scalded, cools the waters, allowing everyone else to follow.
Kol HaKollel, Parshas Tetzaveh

The pundits have been saying that all that Hizbollah has to do in order to claim victory is to survive. Nasrallah has said as much himself.

But does it have to be that way?

In Hezbollah on the Ropes, Steve Schippert, managing editor of ThreatsWatch writes: that in her war with Hezbollah,

Israel has been relentless in pursuit of what has been described as the fiercest Arab fighting force in the region...rightfully feared as the most lethally armed terrorist organization on the planet [emphasis added]

If, as Schippert suggests, Israel has Hezbollah on the ropes, and if Israel succeeds in pushing Hezbollah back and creating a free zone for whatever international force is cobbled together--if Israel is able to do this, inflicting a sizeable black eye on Hezbollah and its reputation, how feared will Hezbollah be then? After the smoke has cleared and Israel is gone from the scene, what will the Lebanese do about the group that brought all that destruction upon their country?

Lee Smith, a Hudson Institute visiting fellow based in Beirut, writes that Hezbollah is losing friends and influence at home:

"There are lots of stories going around Beirut that Hezbollah M.P. Mohammed Raad is dead," says Fawaz. "And get this--more than 500 Hezbollah fighters have been killed and are lying around area hospitals. That's a lot of virgins on call."

Whether or not such rumors are true, they indicate something about the state of affairs right now in Lebanon. There are many Lebanese imagining, fantasizing, hoping against hope that Hezbollah will be wiped from the face of the earth. Some are even joking about it.

"The new one," Fawaz says, "is that they're going to play the next World Cup in the Daheyh [the Shiite neighborhood]--the whole thing's been leveled nice and flat."

Hezbollah's place in Lebanon may end up less than secure.
And Hezbollah's black eye would be Ahmadinejad's as well.

Ralph Peters, writing for the New York Post had recently been down on Israel's chances of success in Lebanon. Now he's changed his tune as Israel has made major inroads into Hezbollah territory:

Even the finest, most-determined military efforts won't eliminate Hezbollah entirely. But uncompromising ferocity on the part of the Israeli Defense Forces can weaken, humble and humiliate the terrorist leadership.

That's what it's going to take.

It would be great if Israel could totally destroy Hezbollah.
But settling for its humiliation may not be so bad.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Hizbollah and Hezbollah and Lebanon.