I'm sorry, that was rude of me. I thought that you were just trying to bait me into another endless argument about Israel where no one's mind is changed, but if you were in fact being earnest, I sincerely apologize.
To tell the truth, I am no middle east scholar and do not have a deep understanding of the history of all of the various conflicts over there. Not many Americans are, and those that even have opinions usually fall into the American Israel lobby party line or are Arabs w/ similarly biased (one-sided) views. I've had it with both.
He brought me up to speed, (quickly), on the recent history of Israel occupying Lebanon under Begin until mid-'90s, and how it did not end well for the Israelis. The moment they pulled out, after training the Lebanon defense forces that were supposed to protect the buffer zone in south Lebanon for over a decade, the Lebanon forces immediately folded up camp and ceded the area to Hezbollah. They defected en masse to Israel or blended back into the population and HB just literally took their positions. At first when Israel went in, in the late '70s, (is this right, doing this from memory?), the Israeli public and Army was gung-ho behind it like they are right now. Pretty soon that changed and by the end they were de-moralized because those pesky insurgents are not so easy to defeat. He compared it to our failed mission in Iraq, (does anyone still dispute this?), it is not easy to fight insurgents when they have the support of the native population. In fact, it's nearly impossible.
He also told me an interesting fact about Hasidic Jews and how they are resented by many in Israel because they beat one of the loudest drums for military action but are excused from mandatory service in the army for religious reasons(?) In other words, they are extreme right-wingers who scream for their countrymen (and women) to fight and die for a cause but do not fight themselves. Plus they are religious fanatics. Remind you of anyone we know?
