Cox & Forkum: Snatching Defeat

Cox & Forkum: Snatching Defeat

Flap doesn’t think Israel is listening.

AP: Israel OKs expansion; 15 troops killed

Israel approved a massive new ground offensive into southern Lebanon in an effort Wednesday to inflict further damage on Hezbollah and halt most rocket attacks before the
U.N. Security Council demands a cease-fire.

The decision came on the deadliest day of the war for Israeli troops in Lebanon, with 15 soldiers killed. It coincided with mounting demands from the international community for both sides to halt the fighting, which has killed at least 829 people.

The plan to force Hezbollah guerrillas — and their short-range rockets — out of southern Lebanon and past the Litani River would escalate the fierce fighting there and, if successful, leave Israel in control of a security zone that it evacuated six years ago after a bloody 18-year occupation.

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