Hezbollah

If Hizbullah did not comply then, why should it do so now, flushed with self-declared victory and with Israel's army still inside Lebanon?

Better to call for an immediate ceasefire, followed by whatever international arrangement can ensure that Hizbullah does not attack again.

Israel tends to exaggerate for American consumption the extent to which Iran is the puppet master of Hamas and Hizbullah.

Even if it was a Palestinian group who fired the rockets, Hizbullah would have to at least have turned a blind eye to allow the rocket fire.

It has set out to destroy Hizbullah's military power, force it away from its border and secure the unconditional return of its prisoners.

But it would fall short of its main aim, which is to deliver such a blow to Hizbullah that it will not pose a serious military threat again.

Many Lebanese fear that, in advance of any possible fight with Iran, Israel will try to remove the threat of Hizbullah's retaliation.

Preferably, though, this would have been at a time of Israel's choosing, not Hizbullah's.

No one of his stature can now gently counter Hizbullah's claim to represent all Lebanese Shias or question its fealty to Iran.

The "disputed" scrap of land known as the Shebaa Farms is at most a pretext Hizbullah uses to justify its fighting.

In Lebanon three years ago, and today in Gaza, Hizbullah and Hamas seem to have invented a new military doctrine.

And yet the authors think it is right for America to talk to Iran, a major sponsor of Hamas and Hizbullah, without preconditions.

And the likelihood of the Lebanese army or a UN force trying to disarm Hizbullah against its will is zero.

At present, the only way to disarm Hizbullah is therefore in the context of an agreement Hizbullah itself can be made to accept.

But that does not mean he will not send them, for Israel has so far failed in its efforts to crush Hizbullah in Lebanon.

If Mr Bush had a choice, he would probably like to give Israel the extra time it says it needs to destroy Hizbullah's military power.

It also means cutting off Hizbullah's resupply, even if the subsequent blockade by land, sea and air brings Lebanon's economy to its knees.

But the amount is too little to create a force that could stand up to Syria, Hizbullah, and especially Israel.

The balance of power looks likely to shift slightly against the pro-Western alliance in favour of the Shia party-cum-militia, Hizbullah.

And after that war, it was tasked with the difficult job of helping UN forces stop the flow of arms to Hizbullah.

It is also true that Iran and Syria, and Hamas and Hizbullah, have lately drawn closer in an anti-American front across the region.

In journalism, it then might require a few extra words to make distinctions, as with Hamas and Hizbullah's charity activity.

The strongest military force in Lebanon is not the national army but the militia run by Hizbullah, which is part of the opposition.

The real issue is why does so much of the world offer unquestioning support for Hizbullah and unconditionally condemn Israel?

Israel would then find itself with a Hizbullah-led government to the north, Hamas to the west and the Muslim Brothers to the south.

Hizbullah retorts that it needed all these weapons as a deterrent of its own.

A non-state actor such as Hizbullah, inside a weak state such as Lebanon, is much less easy to deter.

Removing Hizbullah from the border would at least be that.

The war against Hizbullah in south Lebanon in 2006 was botched, but served to shake up the army.

A better idea would be to deprive Hizbullah of the pretexts it has invented for keeping up its war.

Six years ago Israel withdrew from Lebanon to a border painstakingly demarcated by the UN. Hizbullah fought on anyway.

Yet there is always a risk that Gaza may blow up again, perhaps after a lethal Qassam strike, drawing Hizbullah in again too.

From Iran's point of view, Hizbullah's audacity against Israel is a magnificent advertisement for its particular brand of Shia piety.

Would it be able to disarm Hizbullah and deal with Syria and Iran?

As with Hizbullah, Hamas's "resistance" to Israel has made it popular and delivered it to power. It is most unlikely to bend the knee.

"They usually want more of our supplements on cooking and houses and less of Hizbullah and earthquakes, " says Mr Rech.

The double humiliation of the Hamas and Hizbullah raids from Gaza and Lebanon could have brought a swift end to their government.

Hizbullah Kazim, a Fulbright Fellow for Masters in Public Health in George Washington University, Washington, identifies with Ahmad's pains.

Hizbullah could now face a challenge to its hegemony in the south of the country.

Sudan may already serve as a conduit for Iranian weapons to Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that Iran backs, and to Hizbullah.

Hizbullah cannot be uprooted. It is not going formally to surrender.

An inspiration to Hizbullah when it was founded in the early 1980s, he resented its growing allegiance to Iran.

The opposition, including the Islamist militia Hizbullah, won a greater share of the popular vote but accepted its defeat.

In a rowdy session of Kuwait's parliament, even liberal MPs felt obliged to proclaim solidarity with Hizbullah.

Would they really be willing or able to disarm Hizbullah by force?

The extent of Iran's military support for Hizbullah in its war with Israel earlier this year alarmed Arab neighbours.

The idea that the feeble Lebanese army on its own can control Hizbullah is absurd.

Before stopping, it says, it wants to deprive Hizbullah of its power to strike Israel in future.

UN forces supervising the present ceasefire in Lebanon have failed to prevent fresh Iranian weapons reaching Hizbullah via Syria.

Hizbullah has now killed stone dead the idea of Israel giving up territory again without cast-iron security assurances.

By July 19th, the army said, it had knocked out nearly half of Hizbullah's rockets and some 180 launch sites.

Hizbullah has not endeared itself to many governments in the region, Syria and Iran apart.

But airpower alone will never destroy every last rocket and prevent Hizbullah's fighters from continuing to send them off.

Hizbullah needs to be given a way to consent to these changes without losing face.

But measure it against the threat that Israel feels from Hizbullah and it may not be.

The House and Senate have both passed bipartisan resolutions condemning Hizbullah and affirming Congress's support for Israel.

Before this war, Hizbullah was in control of Israel's border with Lebanon, and could provoke a clash at any time.

Leaks strongly suggest it will not accuse Syria but rather senior officers of Hizbullah itself.

Israel's campaign in Lebanon in 1982 drove out the Palestine Liberation Organisation but encouraged the rise of Hizbullah.

Yet this has not stopped Hizbullah from sending about 100 rockets a day in the opposite direction.

A similar message can be heard from Iran's proxy group in Lebanon, Hizbullah.

In the decades since Israel's invasion of 1982, Hizbullah has emerged as the strongest local military force in Lebanon.

Only if Israel clobbers Hizbullah hard enough might Mr Nasrallah be in the market for some face-saving way to give the plan his blessing.

Israel itches to rid itself of the prickling menace of Hizbullah's big rocket arsenal.

If Hizbullah does not want to stop the war, can Israel?

Israel and Hizbullah, the Lebanese Shia party-cum-militia, fought a full-blown war here four summers ago.

The same tactic might make Hamas, Hizbullah or Iran drop their stated plan to eliminate the Jewish state.

Most of the attacks have concentrated on Hizbullah's strongholds in the Shia suburbs of Beirut and in the south.

Iran continues to bolster its surrogates on Israel's borders: Hizbullah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

Israel's aim is not just to even the score by hurting Hizbullah and then stopping.

Today it fights Iran and Syria through Hizbullah in Lebanon and various militant groups in Gaza.

Only Brazil and Turkey voted no, and Lebanon, where Hizbullah has close ties to Iran, abstained.

To this end Hassan Azda, an Iranian who had been training Hizbullah fighters in Lebanon, was posted to Sudan in 1992.

If America hoped that by knocking out Hizbullah, Israel would help America to weaken Iran, it will be disappointed.

Hizbullah's leadership has a lot of autonomy in making decisions. Iran may oversee strategy, but Hizbullah works out tactics.

And Israel's continuing failure to squelch Hamas or Hizbullah has left Syria with some useful chips.

Having previously denied arming Hizbullah, Iran this week started to boast about the weapons it sent.

Israel accuses Hizbullah of concealing them in people's homes.

Along with Hizbullah's devoted followers, many non-Shias readily accept such arguments.

it cannot but take a similarly fierce line with Hizbullah.

In recent years, Hizbullah has mounted several similar raids into Israel.

They chartered ships to evacuate Canadians stranded in Lebanon when war broke out between Israel and Hizbullah in 2006.

If Israel hoped to knock out Hizbullah, it has failed.

That would, Israel says, put an end to Hizbullah's "state within state" .

In 2006 Hizbullah emerged battered, but claiming victory, in its war with Israel.

On January 8th rockets were fired into Israel from Lebanon, either by Hizbullah or Palestinian fighters.

This culminated in an invasion of central Beirut in May 2008 by Hizbullah gunmen that forced March 14th to accept a power-sharing deal.

This summer, a UJC appeal during Israel's war against Hizbullah in Lebanon raised $340m in just six weeks.

Hizbullah rouses region-wide cheers for bloodying Israel's nose.

"Our e-mail is flooded with CVs, " boasts one senior Hizbullah figure.

In 2006 a subsonic missile fired by Lebanon's Hizbullah militia seriously damaged an Israeli corvette more than 15km offshore.

George Bush is in no rush to rescue Hizbullah.

If Hizbullah intended to provoke a war, it has got what it was looking for.

Lebanon is simply scared of Hizbullah's paymaster.

pro - american governments , such as egypt and saudi arabia , bluntly blame hizbullah for this latest wasteful war.

It also helps Iran in supporting terrorist groups, such as the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hizbullah in Lebanon.

According to Mr Bush, "what they need to do is get Syria to get Hizbullah to stop doing this shit, and it's over" .

Hizbullah is no different, and in some ways worse.

That is a mistake. Hizbullah cannot be uprooted.

K: Do you see and Iranian role in this? Flexing their muscles in the region with Hizbullah?

Hizbullah's leadership has a lot of autonomy in making decisions.

In 2006 it destroyed nearly all of Hizbullah's long-range rockets on the first day of fighting.

Did Hizbullah not kill 159 Israelis, including 116 Zionist soldiers?

Israel says Hizbullah also has Iranian-made Fajr-3 and Fajr-5 rockets, with a range of 45km and 70km.

Cluster munitions got an especially bad press last year, during and after Israel's assault on the Hizbullah movement in Lebanon.

Its Lebanese proxy, Hizbullah, survived Israel's military onslaught last year with greater prestige.

Hizbullah, which lobbed some 4, 000 projectiles at Israel in its five-week war, is thought now to deploy 40, 000-50, 000 rockets.

Jamal in his own way supports Hizbullah's right to act and sees that they are a strong foe that PM Olmert has to deal with

For Hizbullah, that is a big gamble.

Hizbullah being what it is, Mr Nasrallah lost no time claiming that this was "a strategic, historic victory" ;

Hamas and Hizbullah, by contrast, are violent ideological groups willing to provoke wars;

(Her performance during the Israel-Hizbullah war was notably weak. )

Both men are weak: Mr Olmert is accused of botching last summer's war against Hizbullah in Lebanon;

The fiercely anti-Israel Hizbullah sympathises strongly with Hamas;

Hizbullah's Identity Crisis - by Michael Young

After 34 days of war, Hizbullah turns its attention to rebuilding southern Lebanon