The Lebanon precedent for Gaza

Submitted by mhw (United States), Aug 10, 2005 at 09:53

Dr. Pipes implies that the Lebanon pullout resulted in more violent Jihad by citing an incident in May 2001.

Actually, although the Lebanon pullout was an initial propaganda victory for Hizbollah, the aggregate result of the pullout has been good for Israel. Before the Lebanon pullout the IDF was losing dozens of soldiers per year and spending tens of millions of dollars (I think near $50M/yr) on that operation. Since the pullout, the cumulative death toll is less than a dozen and the cumulative savings in operational costs are probably over $100M.

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