Abstract
This paper argues that the US encouraged the starting, continuation and even expansion of the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon in order to achieve its own hegemonic objectives in the region. While global hegemony has always been on Washington’s agenda, in the Bush administration, with neoconservatives sitting behind influential desks in the capital, the initiative got new impetus. According to this new approach, the goal was to be advanced with the confrontation and eventual defeat of the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah-Hamas axis, a move that would help create a ‘New Middle East’ in which opposition to US-Israeli policies would not be tolerated. The paper uses a Neoclassical Realist theoretical approach to show that Washington’s miscalculation of power relations in the region led to the failure of its foreign policy. Like the Iraq War of 2003, the 2006 Lebanon War was a disaster for the US. With the encouragement and support of the Americans, the Israeli war machine fought an inconclusive war with Hezbollah, as a result of which the status of the Israeli military as the Middle East’s ‘Invincible Army’ was shattered and archenemies Hezbollah and Iran were strengthened.
Highlights
On July 12th 2006 Hezbollah forces in a cross border attack on two Israeli armored Humvees killed three soldiers and took two soldiers prisoner
With the encouragement and support of the Americans, the Israeli war machine fought an inconclusive war with Hezbollah, as a result of which the status of the Israeli military as the Middle East’s ‘Invincible Army’ was shattered and archenemies Hezbollah and Iran were strengthened
Like the Iraq war, the 2006 Lebanon War was a disaster for Washington and Tel Aviv
Summary
On July 12th 2006 Hezbollah forces in a cross border attack on two Israeli armored Humvees killed three soldiers and took two soldiers prisoner. Israel’s aim was to cause massive destruction to Lebanon, or to put it in the words of Israel’s Chief of Staff, Dan Halutz, “turn Lebanon's clock back 20 years" (Avnery, 2007). The aim of this policy was to turn the Lebanese population against Hezbollah. There was wide spread speculation of pre-planning by Israel for the summer 2006 war, with the San Francisco Chronicle stating that Army officers had started giving power point presentations on a “three week assault” on Lebanon, with very similar details to the conflict in question, to the US administration and think thanks, almost a year in advance of July 2006 (Kalman, 2006).
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