Who is the winner? The answer, or the "rest of the story," may surprise you. Initially, from a secular perspective Hezbollah is seen as a clear victor over Israel in their current conflict. For the first time in fifty-eight years the Arabs can claim a victory over the secular Jewish State.

Israel has entered into a cease fire without getting back their two soldiers who were taken prisoner - the incident that ignited the current conflict. They failed in their second objective, which was to disarm Hezbollah. During the month long conflict Hezbollah fired over 3,000 rockets into Israel, with the greatest number, over 250, being fired the last day before the cease-fire.

Israel's objective in bombing Hezbollah neighborhoods, and in its destruction of Lebanese infrastructures, was to encourage the Lebanese people to disown Hezbollah, or at the very least not support Hezbollah’s military wing. Unfortunately, Israel's tactics have had the opposite effect. The Lebanese people are today more supportive of Hezbollah than before the current conflict. Hezbollah representation in the Lebanese Parliament will undoubtedly increase in the next election. For Hezbollah has wasted no time in moving into devastated areas, and amply funded by its sponsor Iran, is liberally passing out money to victims to help them rebuild. By one count they are, for starters, giving $12,000 per victim.

The fact that a small number of Hezbollah terrorists have even been able to survive against the vaunted IDF has given them a favorable statute in the eyes of the Lebanese people, and many in the Arab world, which does not brood well for Israel. In 1982 it took the IDF three hours to reach the Litani River. This time it took them a month. What must the thinking be among Hamas and the Palestinians?

There is great concern in Israel that Palestinian militants will draw inspiration from Hezbollah and rely more heavily on rocket attacks against Israel. This is borne out by Ghassan Khatib, the Minister of Labor in the Palestinian Authority, confirming that Hezbollah's perceived ability to survive an Israeli offensive for more than a month had strengthened Palestinian militancy.

Surely, the victory of their brothers in Lebanon will encourage the Palestinians to keep fighting for a similar victory. We can also expect that the Syrians and the Iranians will be doing everything they can to get more missiles in the hands of Hamas, as well as resupply Hezbollah.

Now, for the rest of the story...

The events that are unfolding in the Middle East may be being played out on one level as secular events by secular nations. But rest assured they are at the same time Spiritual events orchestrated by the Master Tactician, and we can rest assured that His battle plan is on schedule. Our job is to the upmost of our ability to figure out the part that the Holy One of Israel has destined for us to play, and then to do our best to accomplish our part.

We are not robots, rather we are people with a free will. Therefore, I believe that the Commander of the Armies of Israel gives a great deal of latitude to His people to wage campaigns in the wars against the forces of evil. He does open and close doors, and causes events to move His plans forward. I also believe He draws some lines. and puts up some fences. so that we His people do not hopelessly thwart His plans, as we seem to have done so many times in the past. So, to insure that we are not counted in the ranks of those who hear His voice and provoke Him by hardening our hearts, let us heed the clear call that this is the generation in which the lost sheep of the house of Israel are being regathered to the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their descendants. Therefore, we need to be evaluating what is happening in the world, especially in the Middle East, from that viewpoint.

From the Master Tactician's viewpoint, what is the reason for the current conflict with Hezbollah and Hamas? We know that for the past fifty-eight years He has not allowed the turn-over of the ancient kingdoms of Judah and Samaria to become a viable independent state of a people who serve another God. Yet this is exactly what the secular State of Israel was preparing to do (See the Editorial The Flights of 9-11, and Israel's Coming Flights ).

So, the Master Tactician sets off a conflict with Hezbollah which will insure that at no time in the near future will there be any unilaterally turn of territory in the West Bank to a Hamas controlled fledgling Palestinian state. Seems outlandish? This is the same One who convinced all the intelligence services that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and thus move hundred’s of thousands of non Islamic soldiers into the Middle East. See the Fall of Iraq-A Herald of Things to Come. He is also the One who in the Six Day War showed an Egyptian Regimental Commander, with 5,000 men and a hundred tanks, that the Israeli force of a hundred men and two tanks that he was facing was composed of thousands of men and hundred of tanks, and the Egyptian Commander surrendered.

From a non-secular viewpoint the victory for the people of Israel in this war was Ehud Olmert's secular government has been weakened by intense criticism of its handling of the war and is in no position to force through its controversial "realignment policy" of unilateral withdrawal from Palestinian territory. Hezbollah's unleashing of thousands of rockets from a border strip in Lebanon vacated six years ago by Israeli forces, coming soon after Hamas's use of rockets from the Gaza Strip, has created a political backlash against withdrawal.

Additionally, Olmert's hopes of pursuing his realignment policy appeared to have been delivered a fatal blow yesterday (August 15, 2006), with the leak of a government-appointed panel's report on its consequences. According to Ha'aretz newspaper, the committee found that a withdrawal would leave cities such as Tel Aviv vulnerable to rocket attacks from the West Bank.

Further, "It is well known that as far as public opinion is concerned, unilateral steps are over already," said Avshalom Vilan, a Knesset member from the leftwing Meretz party. "They will not work. There is no majority for them in the Knesset at the moment or in the future."

In Israeli public opinion, there is an increase in support for military solutions and resistance as a strategy rather than negotiations. Former prime minister Ariel Sharon founded the Kadima party specifically to carry out unilateral withdrawals from occupied territories and he led the pull-out from Gaza almost exactly a year ago. When Mr Sharon had a stroke in January and the Kadima leadership passed to Mr Olmert, he won an election on the pledge to do the same on the West Bank - a far more difficult task because of the much higher number of Jewish settlers and Israeli ambitions to hold on to a significant amount of the territory.

But now the situation is changing Yossi Alpher, an adviser to former prime minister Ehud Barak at the 2000 Camp David peace talks, said: "We have already been attacked across two internationally recognized borders, across which we withdrew unilaterally, and the West Bank won't even be an internationally negotiated border."

If Sharon's realignment policy has reached a dead end, it represents a serious threat to Kadima, which has largely been a single-issue party, and its coalition. If right-wing Kadima members start to defect to the Likud party, Olmert's government will fall apart. While there is widespread agreement that realignment has hit a brick wall, it is far from clear what the government will do next.

We of the other house of Israel should view this war as a pretty loud wake-up call that our brother needs help. See ways in which we can help:

Restoring David's Fallen Tent

Preparing for the Coming Call to War

9-11 United Flight 93 Revisited