While I Understand, I Disagree.

From the Houston Chronicle this morning, Israel is holding back on its ground incursion into Lebanon:

Israel has put its massive new ground offensive into southern Lebanon on hold to give the U.N. Security Council more time to come to an agreement on a cease-fire, an Israeli Cabinet minister and senior officials said Thursday.

Israel's Security Cabinet on Wednesday approved an expanded ground offensive in Lebanon, but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided to put the campaign on hold for two or three days to see whether diplomatic efforts will produce results, a senior Israeli government official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Asked by Israel Radio about the plans for such a delay, Cabinet minister Rafi Eitan said: "There are diplomatic considerations. There is still a chance that an international force will arrive in he area. We have no interest in being in south Lebanon. We have an interest in peace on our borders."

The United Nations has been under tremendous pressure to agree quickly on a cease-fire to end the fighting that has caused widespread destruction across southern Lebanon and forced hundreds of thousands of Israelis into bomb shelters. Israeli officials implied they would halt the new offensive if a cease-fire agreement removes Hezbollah from the border.

Diplomatic efforts to reach a quick U.N. resolution have faltered over differences between Washington and Paris on an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon. France backed Lebanon's call for Israeli troops to pull out once hostilities end, while the United States supported Israel's insistence on staying until a robust international force is deployed. Lebanon has offered to send troops to patrol the border region.

Despite the delay in the offensive, Israeli troops, backed by tanks and armored vehicles, entered several southern Lebanese towns early Thursday and took up positions, witnesses said.

I have no clue what is going through Ehud Olmert's head right now, but if it isn't the defeat and disarming of Hezbollah, then this will turn into a political coup for Hezbollah. They can take the "moral high ground" in the halls of international power. They will have forced the Israelis to end their justified campaign. And as I stated at the beginning, I understand why he's doing this. The louder voices in the international community are the same ones who openly and defiantly refuse to acknowledge that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization; it is far more than that in comparison to their so-called "political wing."

Hamas tried that in the Gaza, and their proxies struck the Israelis instead of themselves. And Mahmoud Abbas has shown that he has no real way of controlling the rabble, or a single intention he really wants to. I guess a Palestinian moderate is one who hasn't killed anyone; just collaborated with assassins. And Hezbollah's masters are a bit larger than simply Hamas. With the story about Iranian soldiers discovered in Lebanon among Hezbollah dead, greater scrutiny is going to be placed on Iran.

But Israel controls the skies over Lebanon, and they can take out any munitions convoys coming through from Iran or Syria. So a resupply isn't what the Israelis are worried about. It seems more like Olmert's afraid of the international reaction if he kicks open the doors to Lebanon, and begins a full ground invasion. He also knows, based on the last few days of diplomatic activity, that the US's patience is only going to last so long. If Israel is going to step up and deal with Hezbollah, they had better do it quickly. Hezbollah is only going to benefit from the lull in action.

Publius II