Troops on the Ground

Does this signal a new phase of the hostilities in the Middle East, the beginning of a ground war, or are these just minor skirmishes?

From The Washington Post:

Israeli armored forces entered the central Gaza Strip overnight and clashed with Palestinian militants, killing two members of Hamas and wounding five, the Associated Press reported, citing residents. Witnesses reported heavy gunfire around the Maghazi Refugee Camp, not far from the Gaza Strip's border with Israel. Fourteen other people, including children, were reported wounded. Five Israeli soldiers were wounded, two of them seriously, the military said, describing the raid as part of its effort to halt rocket fire and recover a soldier captured by gunmen June 25.

From The Associated Press:

At daybreak Wednesday, a small number of Israeli troops were operating just across the border inside southern Lebanon, looking for tunnels and weapons, the Israeli military said without providing any more details.

The incursion came a day after Israel indicated that it might send large numbers of ground troops into the southern Lebanon, but Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman denied Wednesday's operation was part of any such operation.

"What is going on at the moment is a number of Israeli ground troops very near to the border on the Lebanese side, trying to destroy some Hezbollah outposts," he told CNN.

"This is an operation which is very measured, very local," he said. "This is no way an invasion of Lebanon. This is no way the beginning of any kind of occupation of Lebanon."

Tuesday evening, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres was interviewed by Chris Matthews over the phone.

He referred to the call during his guest spot on Tuesday's Tonight Show, and breathlessly announced to the audience that there would be no full-scale invasion.

During the call, Matthews asked Peres:

"What would cause you to take ground troops into either Lebanon on a sustained basis or into syria?

Peres responded:

"Nothing would... We don't intend to enter Lebanon from the ground. The danger today is not an exchange of fire on the ground, but really the missiles and the rockets and we shall try to stop it."

According to Peres, ground troops were supposed to be out of the picture.

Granted, so far, the reports of troops on the ground don't appear to be part of any sort of invasion.

But, it is odd that just hours after Peres told Matthews that Israel had no intention of entering "Lebanon from the ground" Israel is using some ground troops.

Of course, there is a major difference between a large operation into southern Lebanon and a small number of soldiers searching for tunnels and weapons. At this point, we are only seeing the latter.

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Charles Krauthammer makes the case for ground troops in his column, "Lebanon: The Only Exit Strategy."

He writes that the only long-term solution to the Hezbollah menace is for Israel to take the terrorits out now.

The road to a solution is therefore clear: Israel liberates south Lebanon and gives it back to the Lebanese.

It starts by preparing the ground with air power, just as the Persian Gulf War began with a 40-day air campaign. But if all that happens is the air campaign, the result will be failure. Hezbollah will remain in place, Israel will remain under the gun, Lebanon will remain divided and unfree. And this war will start again at a time of Hezbollah and Iran's choosing.

Just as in Kuwait in 1991, what must follow the air campaign is a land invasion to clear the ground and expel the occupier. Israel must retake south Lebanon and expel Hezbollah. It would then declare the obvious: that it has no claim to Lebanese territory and is prepared to withdraw and hand south Lebanon over to the Lebanese army (augmented perhaps by an international force), thus finally bringing about what the world has demanded -- implementation of Resolution 1559 and restoration of south Lebanon to Lebanese sovereignty.

Only two questions remain: Israel's will and America's wisdom. Does Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have the courage to do what is so obviously necessary? And will Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's upcoming peace trip to the Middle East force a premature cease-fire that spares her the humiliation of coming home empty-handed but prevents precisely the kind of decisive military outcome that would secure the interests of Israel, Lebanon, the moderate Arabs and the West?

I agree.

A "premature cease-fire" is not a solution. It would just be a temporary pause in confronting the inevitable.