之前西方傳媒已廣泛報道，以色列一早已計劃大規模攻擊真主黨及黎巴嫩的民用設施，真主黨俘虜以軍的行動只是帶來了最好的時機。紐約客雜誌的老記者SEYMOUR M. HERSH在最新一篇報道為我們貼上最後一塊砌圖：美國一早知道並全力支持以軍的行動，黎巴嫩戰爭不單是美國攻擊伊朗的前哨戰，更是攻擊伊朗的試驗場；而以色列的官員，則以北約轟炸南斯拉夫為樣，真是，難兄難弟。
SEYMOUR M. HERSH寫的報道，總是令人心寒──他讓你見識到，美國的高官和以色列的將軍如何視他人的性命為草芥。以下是文章的節錄：
The Bush Administration....was closely involved in the planning
of Israel’s retaliatory attacks. President Bush and Vice-President Dick
Cheney were convinced, current and former intelligence and diplomatic
officials told me, that a successful Israeli Air Force bombing campaign
against Hezbollah’s heavily fortified underground-missile and
command-and-control complexes in Lebanon could ease Israel’s security
concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential American preëmptive
attack to destroy Iran’s nuclear installations, some of which are also
buried deep underground.
....
The Israeli plan, according to the former senior intelligence official,
was “the mirror image of what the United States has been planning for
Iran.”
....
In the early discussions with American officials, I was told by the
Middle East expert and the government consultant, the Israelis
repeatedly pointed to the war in Kosovo as an example of what Israel
would try to achieve. The NATO forces
commanded by U.S. Army General Wesley Clark methodically bombed and
strafed not only military targets but tunnels, bridges, and roads, in
Kosovo and elsewhere in Serbia, for seventy-eight days before forcing
Serbian forces to withdraw from Kosovo. “Israel studied the Kosovo war
as its role model,” the government consultant said. “The Israelis told
Condi Rice, ‘You did it in about seventy days, but we need half of
that—thirty-five days.’ ”
.....
Kosovo has been cited publicly by Israeli officials and journalists
since the war began. On August 6th, Prime Minister Olmert, responding
to European condemnation of the deaths of Lebanese civilians, said,
“Where do they get the right to preach to Israel? European countries
attacked Kosovo and killed ten thousand civilians. Ten thousand! And
none of these countries had to suffer before that from a single rocket.
I’m not saying it was wrong to intervene in Kosovo. But please: don’t
preach to us about the treatment of civilians.” (Human Rights Watch
estimated the number of civilians killed in the NATO bombing to be five hundred; the Yugoslav government put the number between twelve hundred and five thousand.)
......
Cheney’s office supported the Israeli plan, as did Elliott Abrams, a
deputy national-security adviser, according to several former and
current officials. (A spokesman for the N.S.C. denied that Abrams had
done so.) They believed that Israel should move quickly in its air war
against Hezbollah. A former intelligence officer said, “We told Israel,
‘Look, if you guys have to go, we’re behind you all the way. But we
think it should be sooner rather than later—the longer you wait, the
less time we have to evaluate and plan for Iran before Bush gets out of
office.’ ”
......
Cheney’s point, the former senior intelligence official said, was “What
if the Israelis execute their part of this first, and it’s really
successful? It’d be great. We can learn what to do in Iran by watching
what the Israelis do in Lebanon.”
要知道以色列的輿論，可以看以下的報道，看的時候請不要忘記香港。
ISRAELIS TURN ON OLMERT