Israel's Attack on Lebanon and Hezbollah

[Cyrus]

[ QUOTE ]
I think [the recent attack] is a terrible move by Israel given the progress that Lebanon has made in the past 18 months. The goal should be lessening the influence extremists have in Lebanon, not driving the government into their arms.

[/ QUOTE ]This is an important point that has not been stressed enough in the related discussions. (We seem to be concerned more with putting labels on the debating opponent.)

The attack risks to radicalize the Arabs of Lebanon, with the implicit danger of forcing even the Israelis' previous (and lone) allies, the Christian nationalists, into the anti-Israel camp. (Note that there were some Christians among the casualties, while many Christians have already abandoned or lost their homes.)

Lebanon was ready to get away from under the Syrian influence and to consolidate a viable national consensus in politics, which would have been presumably to the long-term benefit of Israel as well. A strong, central government in Beirut would sooner or later attempt to establish its authority over every part of Lebanon. With the main fighting force of the Palestinians having left Lebanon in the 1980s, Hezbollah and its heteroclite allies were the only obstacles in that endeavor.