Majority of Israeli public still backs invasion

Martin Fletcher Correspondent • Profile

NAHARIYA, Israel — The conflict in southern Lebanon was ratcheted up on Wednesday as Israel brought in more troops for a large ground invasion and Hezbollah launched a record number of rockets into Israel. NBC’s Martin Fletcher reports from northern Israel on the changing nature of the 22-day old conflict and the prospects for a cease-fire.

Israel led its deepest raid yet into southern Lebanon on Wednesday with a ground invasion involving about 10,000 troops. What is Israel’s goal now?
They are concentrating on clearing an area that they say is between five to seven kilometers wide along the entire length of the border between Israel and Lebanon, which is about 90 miles long.

So, that is a lot of work to do if that is their goal.

They have about 8,000 to 10,000 troops inside and more on the way if they are needed. They are also still waiting to see how deep they are going to go in. There is a possibility that they will go as far in as the Litani River, which is about 18 miles inside Lebanon.

There has been bitter fighting and it isn’t clear really to what extent Hezbollah is still able to function. But each day that they fire rockets, they are firing more than the last time.

The last time there were airstrikes, Hezbollah fired 150 rockets at Israel. Then they had two days without rockets — they were matching Israel’s lull in airstrikes — and then on Wednesday, Israel resumed their attacks, and Hezbollah continued their attacks as well with at least 180 rocket attacks. More than 180 Katyusha rockets in one day is a new record.

So it’s clear that although Israel is making real progress on the ground, they are still nowhere near any kind of success in terms of stopping the Katyusha rockets, which is one of the key goals of the invasion.

Is one of Israel’s goals to secure the border zone so that if and when there is a cease-fire, that can be the zone that international peace keeping troops monitor?
It’s one of the goals they mention and it’s certainly a true strategic goal — although it may not be the key goal. The main goal is to defeat Hezbollah and stop the rocket threat. 

But in order to achieve that key goal, they must succeed with what they call “clearing of the zone,” into which an international force will then go. One of the problems with an international force is that it’s not a force that is going to come in to fight Hezbollah.

One of the key obstacles to an international force is that the countries don’t want to send their troops into an area where there a potential war going on. They want to send the troops into an area where there is no real military threat.  

So, Israel says that part of its goal in clearing a security zone is to make it safer for an international force to come in and occupy it.  And the more safe it becomes — or the more Israel can defeat Hezbollah in that security zone — the safer it will be for the international troops.

At the moment there are still plenty of Hezbollah in the area. There is no agreement yet from the various sides about an international force coming, so it’s a very volatile situation.

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