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As Israel Sees It

[Times-UK] Editorial - In Israel, polls suggest that 90 percent of the population believe that the response to Hizballah has been right and three-quarters of those surveyed think that the military campaign should be prosecuted more vigorously. The army is having no difficulty in mobilizing its reservists. Hizballah is perceived as representing a threat to the integral territory of Israel. There is, furthermore, a widely held fear that Hizballah will deploy whatever devices it could acquire against Israel and that it might not be long before Tel Aviv comes under fire. That prospect is deemed so dire that most Israelis would prefer to deal with Hizballah today, even at a sizeable cost to the country's image abroad as well as its young men in uniform, than rely on the UN. The Israeli public is pressing to see this mission through until the international community can provide a credible force for southern Lebanon that will actively deter Hizballah from launching missiles. Many outsiders seeing pictures of civilian casualties in Lebanon regard Israel as the aggressor. Israelis of all stripes have rarely felt more like victims.
2006-08-02 01:00:00
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