Reply #93: In a way

[eyl]

Ever since Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, it has been watching with growing concern as Hizbullah as taken complete control of southern Lebanon, and built up its armaments with more and better rockets. Not to mention their occasional attacks, as well as their repeated attempts at kidnapping Israeli soldiers (one of which succeeded in late 2000).

Depsite the criticism I've seen here for Israel not trying diplomatic responses first, in fact it has been trying to use diplomacy, for the past six years, to get Lebanon to take control of the south, primarily through the UN. All such attempts have proven futile, and the UN's conduct in the 2000 kidnapping of Israeli soldiers have shown it to be ineffective at best.

So to some extent, the kidnapping is a pretext. It gives Israel to excuse to use force to try clean out Hizbullah and its facilities, both from southern Lebanon and from Beirut, on the one hand, and on the other hand, forcibly pressure Lebanon's government to send Lebenese Army units to take control of the south. There are signs that the latter pressure, at least, is working.