As the fighting intensified, senior Israeli officials remained at odds over how long it would continue. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said she expected the campaign to end on Monday, but the officer commanding the campaign, Major General Dan Halutz, said that he expected it to go on for another week.

Halutz said the ceasefire would begin when the UN soldiers had taken control of southern Lebanon. 'We will continue to operate until we achieve our aims. We are fighting Hizbollah and will continue to fight it until a ceasefire is decided, but more than that, until it is decided what the mechanism for implementing [that ceasefire] is,' he said.

One of the most significant features of Israel's wars of aggression in Gaza and Lebanon is the unanimity between the so-called "hawks" and movements that in the past were considered "doves." Peace Now has remained largely silent over Israel's massive assault on Hamas and the Palestinians in Gaza, ongoing since June. In the case of Lebanon, from the moment full-scale hostilities began in July following Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers, Peace Now declared its support for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and the Olmert government.

So one general has been Replaced by another. So we shall reach The Litani. And then what? Hizbullah Will continue to exist. The rockets Will continue to fly. The border Will not be quiet. There is only A political solution. There is no Military solution.

....one thing should be clear: If Olmert runs away now from the war he initiated, he will not be able to remain prime minister for even one more day. Chutzpah has its limits. You cannot lead an entire nation to war promising victory, produce humiliating defeat and remain in power. You cannot bury 120 Israelis in cemeteries, keep a million Israelis in shelters for a month, wear down deterrent power, bring the next war very close, and then say - oops, I made a mistake. That was not the intention. Pass me a cigar, please.

Hersh's intelligence and diplomatic sources tell him that the reason for this hands-off reaction was that George Bush and Dick Cheney already knew about Israeli plans for a bombing campaign against Hezbollah's underground missile complexes and were convinced that it could both increase Israel's security and serve as a prelude to a American pre-emptive attack on Iran's nuclear installations. The White House also wanted Hezbollah stripped of the ability to retailiate against Israel in the wake of an American attack on Iran. As one U.S. government consultant told Hersh, "The Israelis told us it would be a cheap war with many benefits. Why oppose it? We'll be able to hunt down and bomb missiles, tunnels, and bunkers from the air. It would be a demo for Iran."

Former Ambassador Richard Holbrooke yesterday said that he was glad to get a chance to speak out on the current Middle East crises. Holbrooke told NPR's Day to Day that he "believes the continued U.S.-led occupation of Iraq and the current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon could spark a wider regional war -- and that it's a bigger threat than the Cuban Missile Crisis."

Recent US intelligence community analyses raise the question: What would change Hezbollah's current posture of standing on the sidelines and not actively targeting Americans? In April , the community produced a National Intelligence Estimate on terrorism, which, according to people who have read it , says that Hezbollah is the only major terrorist group with global reach currently not trying to kill Americans. The document also raised the intelligence community's concern that, if the United States were to attack Iran over its nuclear program, Iran might use Hezbollah to strike US targets once again.

Does the announced "cease-fire" really have a chance?

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel believes it will be entitled to use force to prevent Hizbollah from rearming and to clear guerrilla positions out of southern Lebanon after a U.N. truce takes effect, Israeli officials said on Sunday.

".... The definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result."

Nonetheless, some officers serving with the Joint Chiefs of Staff remain deeply concerned that the Administration will have a far more positive assessment of the air campaign than they should, the former senior intelligence official said. "There is no way that Rumsfeld and Cheney will draw the right conclusion about this," he said. "When the smoke clears, they'll say it was a success, and they'll draw reinforcement for their plan to attack Iran." ... ...The Western diplomat told me his embassy believes that Abrams has emerged as a key policymaker on Iran, and on the current Hezbollah-Israeli crisis ... ...." The crisis will really start at the end of August, the diplomat added, "when the Iranians"--under a United Nations deadline to stop uranium enrichment--"will say no." ...

So, Lavocat, do you believe Israel should be dismantled and handed over to the arabs?

Hezbollah is responsible for many American deaths, including over 200 Marines when blowing up their barracks in Lebanon in the early 80's)

Yeah... launching missles into Isreal (after killing & kidnapping their soldiers on thier own land) is truly the mark of a "freedom fighter"

Forget about the past & the fact that hezbollah attacked Isreal in the first place