Hills are alive with the muffled thump of bridges being bombed

Times:

A DISTANT, muffled thump echoes in the hills and valleys of south Lebanon as yet another bridge is struck by Israeli aircraft and sent into the shallow waters of the Litani river.

Israel pressed ahead yesterday with its harshest campaign of air raids in ten years, punishment for Hezbollah’s abduction of two Israeli soldiers and killing of another eight.

Roads and river bridges were hit repeatedly, effectively severing the beleaguered south from the rest of the country. The Litani is Lebanon’s longest river and cuts through much of the south. By mid-afternoon, it had become impossible to enter the border district along the coastal route. Tens of thousands of civilians were stranded, as were United Nations peacekeepers deployed along the border.

In return Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets deep into Israel, most of them conventional 122mm Katyushas with a range of 12 miles. In the evening the party appeared to fulfil a threat made earlier in the day to attack Haifa, which is 18 miles south of the border and deeper in Israel than Hezbollah has struck before. Although one spokesman rapidly denied responsibility, Hussein Naboulsi, a Hezbollah official, hinted at a long-range rocket attack earlier. He told The Times: “So far we have not used the weapons that we are supposed to use. But if the situation escalates, something totally unexpected might happen to Israel.”

Hardly reassuring words, either for Israel or for the Lebanese, many of whom had hoped fervently to have seen the last of their country being dragged again into the festering Arab-Israeli conflict.

Nabatiyeh, a normally bustling market town, looked deserted, with shops closed and shuttered. The celebrations in Shia Muslim villages that had greeted the news that Hezbollah had captured and killed Israeli troops had turned into grim defiance. In an area where Hezbollah support remains strong, few residents would openly question the wisdom of the kidnapping operation.

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The world needs to let Isreal destroy the enemies who want to destroy Israel. It appears from this story that the southern part of Lebanon will be completely isolated to road traffic although terrorist will still be able to wade across some of the streams. It will be difficult for Hezballah to resupply and bring more rockets to replace those fired or destroyed by Israel. In other words it will extremely hard to resupply Hezballah's machinery of war.

Isreal is doing all of this very rapidly, as opposed to the gradual force brought to bear on Gaza. Israel probably anticipates the political pressure that may gather to save the terrorist from destruction. so far the US appears to be giving them the time and room they need to aggressively go after Hezballah's assets. I suspect that is their primary objective at this point. They want to make it impossible for Hezballah to put its weapons within reach of Israel.