Israeli Officer Says Restraint Led To Lebanon War
Ryan R. Jones - All Headline News Middle East Correspondent Jerusalem, Israel (AHN) - A senior Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officer told The Jerusalem Post Tuesday that Israel's years of restraint in the face of Hezbollah aggression is what led to the circumstances that sparked the recent Lebanon war. Colonel (res.) Kobi Marom, who formerly commanded the eastern sector of the IDF's southern Lebanon security zone, said Israel's greatest failure leading up to this summer's conflict was repeatedly voicing grand threats and then not carrying them out when Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorists attacked anyway. Marom noted that since Israel quit southern Lebanon in May 2000, Hezbollah had carried out several severe cross-border raids and fired numerous rockets into northern Israel, all without significant response from the Jewish state. This, he said, had emboldened Hezbollah to launch its July 12 assault, believing that Israel's military response would again be minor. Marom praised Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for having the courage to finally go to war over the provocations, but lamented the fact a ground invasion was not ordered sooner, which would have, in his estimation, resulted in greater diplomatic gains.
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