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The response to the kidnapping began as a massive series of air strikes which destroyed most of Hezbollah's long- and medium-range missiles and also targeted the civilian infrastructure. It then became evident that in order to get rid of the short-range ones which were pounding the north of the country, a massive commitment of ground troops would be needed.
Due to under-funding of the army and the resulting shortcomings in its training and preparedness, its commanders were reluctant to commit their soldiers such a battle, nor would the government order this. For this reason, and due to the outcry both inside Israel and worldwide, over the bombing of the civilian infrastructure and the civilian death and suffering, Israel agreed to a truce. It failed to realize its final objectives.
For this reason among others, the war was considered "bungled."
Beauty is truth, truth beauty

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Another criticism was that there was excessive haste in Israel's retaliation. Actually, these border incidents had been occurring every month or two. Israeli intelligence had recently intercepted phone calls between Hamas and Hezbollah, in one of which Hamas complained that its cease-fire was not paying off and that they intended to go into action again. They asked Hezbollah to "warm up the north."So Israel had decided to retaliate massively to the next incident that occurred.
This material,and more I will be citing, comes from an article by Seymour Hersh in "The New Yorker", 2006 (thirdworldtraveler.com/Seymour Hersh/Watching_Lebanon.html).
The sensitive midpoint, Moon/Uranus, natally at 14 CA 32, had arced to 10 VI 10, square natal Mercury, giving feelings of dread and trepidation. Mercury itself had arced 7 LI 58, opposite natal Eris, or strife (7 AR 1), and was transited by a semisquare from Mars at 23 LE 28.
In another sense, it may be said that not only the two soldiers, but also the entire country, was being hijacked.
The progressed Sun, at 19 CA 19, conjoined the progressed Plutoid Makemake, named afer a creator and seafaring god of Easter Island.
In an article sponsored by "The Midlands School of Astrology" and posted on April 11, 2009 (www.midlandsschoolofastrology.co.uk/mak ... sland.html), when this plutoid came into opposition to Uranus on April 11 of that year, this coincided with attacks by Somali pirates, of which there were more than four separate incidents on that day, and also with kidnappings. "... the biggest story was the kidnapping of an American captain for ransom. Captain Phillips had offered himself as a hostage in order to secure the release of crew and ship, the Maersk' Alabama." He was later released unharmed. His release was a high priority in the U.S., declared to be so by the Secretary od Defense, just as the two soldiers were a high priority in Israel._
Beauty is truth, truth beauty

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According to Hersh, Israel had a plan, which it shared with the Bush Administration well before the kidnappings. They envisaged a "cheap war" with few army casualties.
"The initial plan was for a major bombing campaign in response to the next provocation. Israel believed, that by targeting Lebanon's infrastructure, including highways, fuel depots, and even the civilian runways at the main Beirut airport, it could persuade Lebanon's large Christian and Sunni populations to turn against Hezbollah." and, I assume manage to rein it in and establish what the U.S. would call a democracy.
The Bush Administration considered the Lebanon war as a prelude and test case for its own subsequent attack on Iran: first of all in would prove the possibility of removing dug-in installations and civilian infrastructures by large-scale bombings accompanied by a small-scale ground operation; the Iranians would then revolt and change the regime. And Iran would not be able to use Hezbollah to retaliate against the U.S. ally. Israel, because it would by then have been neutralised.
By that sort of logic 9/11 would have caused Americans to throw out Bush, and bombing London would have caused the English to throw out Churchill.
The actual course of the invasion would indicate that the two Grand Quintiles' activation by Venus and Saturn rendered the Israeli operation cautious, defensive, and sensitive to the sacredness of the lives of their soldiers, not a bad thing as it turned out.
As to the T-squares, one of these was formed by progressed Uranus at 27 GE 43 closely opposite natal Jupiter at 27 SG 34, with progressed geo Mars at 26 VI 52 conjunct the Moon at 27 VI 10 at their midpoint. This was transited by the Uranus/Pluto midpoint at 28 TA 1 square natal Mars. Arced Vesta at 25 VI 20 conjunct natal Jupiter/Uranus was transited by Pluto at 25 SG 34.
The other was formed by arced Uranus/Jupiter conjunct natal Chiron, which was transited by the Mars/Neptune midpoint at 21 SC 19. Progressed Chiron was transited by helio Jupiter.
Beauty is truth, truth beauty

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I incorrectly stated in my last post that the two Grand Quintiles were influenced by Venus and Saturn, when obviously Vesta and Saturn were the planets in question.
The Moon-MC conjunction had arced to a world point at 0 LI 21 and 29 VI 42, while arced Ceres, at 4 LE 18, trioctile natal Juno of partners, conjoined the natal MC. The transiting Moon at 5 AQ 0 opposed the natal Moon-MC and arced Ceres,and was also conjunct natal helio Atlantis. Ceres, said to have a protective effect, also refers to mourning for a lost child, and Vesta to a sacred trust, both then to the kidnapped soldiers.
The progressed Sun at 19 CA 19 was octile natal Venus in the ninth house of diplomacy, making for problems in foreign relations, which is also shown by progressed Venus retrograde and conjunct natal Uranus. The progressed Sun conjunct natal Mercury/Mars showed excitability (COSI) and octile natal Uranus/NN showed an inclination to violence, Solar Arc Jupiter at 23 AQ 16 square natal Sun made for exaggeration, while arced Pluto/NN, also square natal Sun at 23 LE 58, showed an urge to ruthlessly impose its will. Progressed Vesta square and arced Pluto trioctile natal Sun indicated additional pressure. All this showed an event when the Sun transited at 19 CA 26 conjunct arced Sun.
A period of weakened grasp on reality was ushered in by helio Pluto arc at 9 LI 30 conjunct natal geo Neptune, though this was not transited on that day.
Quoting Haaretz six years later (haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/iran-s-response-to-second-lebanon-war-is-israel-s-gain-1.373633) "The northern border has been quiet for five years. Contrary to Hezbollah's wishes, the Lebanese Army deployed in the south and an international force was stationed along the border, creating a barrier against the Shi'ite organization. Its fortification line along the border was destroyed, and its members can no longer carry unconcealed weapons.
"All these limitations make it much harder for Hezbollah to operate near the border...The Israeli Defense Forces' deterrent power has been restored. True, Hezbollah has tripled its stores of missiles since the war, and upgraded them, but it presumably would have done so in any event."
Beauty is truth, truth beauty