16.07.2011                      14.Tammus, 5771                      Pinchas

Rückschau:

All quiet on the northern front… for the moment

Security and Defense: Hezbollah, Damascus's relationship has boomed since 2006, Lebanese guerrilla group now maintains bases in Syria.

One of the ways former IDF chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. (res.) Gabi Ashkenazi used to evaluate the success of the Second Lebanon War in 2006 was by talking to schoolchildren.
“Do you know what air sirens sound like?” he would ask kids at kindergartens and elementary schools throughout the North, and then point out that in September 2011, the children entering first grade would be the first to do so without ever having set foot inside a bomb shelter.
This is, without a doubt, a great success. In a reality where Israel fights enemies like Hezbollah and Hamas, which cannot be completely destroyed, the thinking in the IDF is that success in a war with one of them should therefore be judged by the length of the subsequent quiet. With Hezbollah, it has so far lasted five years, and with Hamas just barely two….