The young men from reserve battalion 9211 greeted each other with quiet handshakes and embraces on Israel’s Memorial Day by the rose and flag-covered grave of their friend David Smidov. “It’s a difficult day,” Ori Bushari, 26, said on Monday. Bushari had been friends with Smidov since the day they were drafted together nearly eight… More ▸
After months of equivocation, Israel has formally recognized last year’s offensive against Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas as a war and given it a name. But while the chosen title — “Second Lebanon War” — may offer some comfort to Israelis who were bereaved by the fighting and want to know their losses were for a cause,… More ▸
Gabi Ashkenazi, the blunt general who takes over as the Israel Defense Forces’ chief of staff next week, faces a mammoth task: Within the next few months he’ll be expected to restructure the army, redefine its operational doctrine and restore its self-belief. Six months after last summer’s war in Lebanon, the IDF is still smarting… More ▸
If chances of a Lebanese-Israeli peace agreement seemed distant after Israel’s war this summer with Hezbollah, the assassination of a leading Lebanese Christian politician has further dampened the prospects. Tuesday’s assassination of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, a fierce critic of Syrian influence on his country, has sharpened the divisions between Lebanese of pro-Western leanings and… More ▸
Shlomo Goldwasser knew his son, Ehud, was in trouble on the Lebanon border in July, even though he himself was several thousand miles away in Namibia at the time. “As soon as the news alert about two Israeli soldiers being kidnapped on the Lebanon border flashed up on CNN, I knew I was in the… More ▸
Israel’s recent war with Hezbollah resulted in a new wave of anti-Semitic incidents in Europe — almost all in Western Europe, a new report finds. The European Jewish Congress’ 53-page report, presented Sunday at a World Jewish Congress meeting in Paris, reveals that the transference of anti-Israel sentiment onto Jews occurred almost exclusively in Western… More ▸
With Hamas’ militia smuggling millions of dollars’ worth of weapons into Gaza and Israel determined to prevent a significant Palestinian arms build-up, the two sides could be on the brink of a major military showdown. According to IDF sources, Hamas wants to emulate Hezbollah’s model in Lebanon: to develop its rocket threat against Israeli civilians,… More ▸
Israel’s war with Hezbollah ended much like the way it was waged — unpredictably, and with a good deal of self-doubt. “It’s over, mom,” muttered one soldier into his cell phone as he crossed back from Lebanese territory at the Israeli border village of Zarit before dawn Sunday. One of his comrades jauntily clutched an… More ▸
With criticism of the handling of this summer’s war in Lebanon continuing to mount, Israel’s military elite is struggling to deal both with the war’s political fallout and its implications for military strategy. As they ponder the threats to northern Israel, these strategists are thinking not only about Hezbollah, but about the questions this war… More ▸
An international consensus is emerging that Lebanon is an abused party that needs to be delicately drawn away from Iran’s influence. The differences between Israel, the United States, Europe and Lebanon that dogged efforts to implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended this summer’s Israel-Hezbollah war, are dissipating, diplomats say. Israel’s foreign minister, Tzipi… More ▸
