Who stopped the Israeli offensive?

Jerusalem Post:

The booms of Katyusha rockets continued; another day of what has become routine in the North. But the IDF was holding position, waiting for orders that did not come. After 30 days of fighting, the war with Hizbullah seemed to be nearing its conclusion Thursday.

Just a day earlier, the situation had looked drastically different. The security cabinet had approved the army's request to send thousands of troops up to the Litani River and beyond in an effort to destroy Hizbullah's infrastructure and to stop the Katyusha attacks. After the cabinet meeting, one division actually began moving north from Metulla. Its goal - to clear out al-Khiam and Marjayoun and to reach the Litani.

But then, under pressure from the US, Defense Minister Amir Peretz made a frantic call to Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz and ordered him to stop the division in its tracks. "We need to give the diplomatic process one last chance," Peretz told Halutz. The orders trickled down the chain of command and by the time they reached 366, it had already reached Marjayoun, a stone's throw from the Litani.

With the UN Security Council on the verge of passing a cease-fire resolution, the IDF understood on Thursday that Operation Change of Direction was ending, for better or for worse.

The IDF was disappointed. Senior officers said they had been looking forward to the fight. Reaching the Litani and eliminating Hizbullah from the villages on the way could have provided, senior officers believe, the victory that Israel has been trying to obtain since July 12. By Thursday night, the chance of that happening was drifting away.

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They have no one to blame but themselves for squandering all the time that the US has given them to do the job. Their dithering response to this time suggest they were not really serious about wanting to pay the price of getting to the Litani. Some reports even suggested that the politicians were looking for a UN resolution to bail them out of that fight they did not have the stomach for. If the IDF feels like they have been denied an opportunity. they should not blame politicians in Washington, but look to the ones in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Tat being said, there is no way this result should be considered a victory for Hezballah, and particularly its principal, Iran. They are both big loosers not only in terms of the destruction they suffered. They are even bigger loosers when it comes to Iran's hope for strategic deterrence against an attack by Israel. Hezballahs rockets have had minimal strategic value and no tactical value.