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Backgrounder: Defining Victory: The Differing Goals of Israel and Hezbollah

Council on Foreign Relations

Introduction

Israel and Hezbollah, combatants in Lebanon, have different tactical goals and different ways of positioning themselves to emerge from the current crisis and claim victory. Hezbollah is trying to increase its regional and international profile, and brand itself as the only group to successfully battle the mighty Israeli army. Israel seeks to stop Hezbollah's daily launching of rockets at its territory, establish a buffer zone in southern Lebanon patrolled by an international force, and prevent Hezbollah from re-arming after the crisis. " Israel has to deal a knockout blow to Hezbollah's capabilities, but Hezbollah just has to not lose," says CFR Fellow Steven A. Cook.

How would Israel define victory?

"Israelis don't speak in terms of victory," says Michael Herzog, a brigadier general in the Israeli army and a visiting fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "They speak in terms of the objectives they want to accomplish: to seriously degrade Hezbollah's military capabilities as much as possible. This is to weaken the group, and also to reestablish deterrence, so that even if Hezbollah has rockets, they will be much more cautious about using them." Israel will also try to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon, patrolled by a combination of international forces and Lebanese troops, to prevent Hezbollah from using the area to launch rockets or raids on Israel.

These goals have shifted from the start of the conflict, experts say. Then, Israeli officials spoke of eliminating the Hezbollah threat. "I think people realize Hezbollah will not voluntarily disarm, and there's no force on the ground that will force them to disarm," Herzog says. "But even if we can't disarm them, we can prevent them from re-arming to the same level."

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2006 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.