"... One such position was the observation post near the town of Jezzine onto which a TIME reporter stumbled. It consisted of a couple of bunkers sunk into the hillside, an open fireplace with a soot-blackened cooking pot and bags of onions and potatoes. Local residents say at night they can hear the sounds of explosions and gunfire echoing through the valleys as Hizballah trains..."Israel is living in a state of confusion because it perceives that any aggression it would launch against Lebanon would be lost," boasted Hizballah deputy leader Sheik Naim Qassem this week, adding that he did not believe a new war with Israel was on the horizon. Perhaps not, but the look in the eyes of Hizballah's combatants suggest that not only are they fully prepared to fight one, they actually look forward to it.
"It doesn't matter. We can always rebuild. Our dignity is more important than roofs over our heads," says Haj Rida, a square-jawed unit commander. Such sangfroid illustrates the single-minded determination of the Hizballah combatant,......Hizballah's possession of the M-600 is "just the tip of the iceberg," Brigadier General Yossi Baidatz, Israel's top military intelligence analyst, told a Knesset committee on Tuesday, May 4. "Hizballah currently has an arsenal of thousands of rockets of all kinds and ranges, including solid-fueled rockets, with a longer range and more accurate," he said.
Besides seeking new weapons systems, the Shi'ite militia is also finding innovative ways to utilize older armaments, such as the guerrilla-standard RPG-7 grenade launcher and the recoilless rifle, a near obsolete antitank weapon. "The RPG-7 is old but still a good weapon," says Ali. "It's how you use them that counts. We are always studying new combat techniques."
Israel's heavily armored tanks are to receive a newly developed defense system that fires mini-interceptors to destroy incoming antitank missiles. Hizballah fighters, without revealing details, say they are training to overcome such sophisticated defenses by "swarming" Israeli tanks with low-tech antitank weapons. Hizballah's battle plans may also include having fighters infiltrate Israel to carry out raids and sabotage missions — a move that would be unprecedented in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Israeli doctrine is to fight its wars in the territory of its enemies rather than on its home front. Says Ali: "God willing, we will go into Palestine next time."
Despite the mounting tension, Israel's pledge — and vast capability — to inflict catastrophic damage on Lebanon and the scale of Hizballah's arms buildup functions as a kind of mutual deterrence that has brought the usually volatile frontier its longest period of calm in 40 years."
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