LEBANON INTERMISSION

The fighting in Lebanon is already triggering debate in Israel about the division of missions between its air force and army. The combat also revealed classified technology that Tel Aviv kept under wraps prior to the simultaneous conflicts with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Analysis of the conflict is being rushed because many believe the United Nations cease-fire will not last long. Both U.S. and Israeli military officials doubt that U.N. or Lebanese troops can disarm Hezbollah; this means a continuation of the fighting is inevitable.

"The cease-fire is not in Israel's interest," a Pentagon official says. "Hezbollah will use it to rearm and redeploy."

"I absolutely agree," says a retired Israeli air force general. "They are preparing for the second round of fighting, which will start soon."

Hezbollah officials were saying last week, within days of the cease-fire, that they would not withdraw or disarm without extended negotiations with the Lebanese government--of which, they contend, their organization is a part. That stance indicates Hezbollah will try to shed its title of a "state within a state" and will present its militant wing as a legitimate Lebanese military force. It would justify retaining its arms as the only way to protect southern Lebanon from Israel, since the country's regular military is too weak to do so. The U.N. force being assembled to police the area will not be authorized to disarm Hezbollah.

In defense of the Israeli air force (IAF), the service's leadership never claimed that it could suppress the short-range missiles fired by the hundreds from southern Lebanon, says the general, who maintains his contacts with the strike fighter community. "Nobody suggested that the air force could win the war alone," he says.

However, the air force was extremely effective in carrying out the strategic missions it was assigned, the general contends. "It took care of all the long-range missile capability that could have inflicted damage south of Haifa," he says. "They did not fire a single [210-km.-range Zilzal-2]." Some of the earliest reports from Israel's defense ministry confirmed that a number of the long-range weapons had been identified and destroyed. The other strategic mission of the IAF was to damage the roads and bridges that had permitted the long-term supply of weapons, supplies and intelligence-gathering equipment from Syria and Iran.

Israeli troops are still finding packaged Russian-designed AT-5 antitank weapons produced in Iran, as well as Russian-made, Syrian-supplied Kornet-E laser-guided and Metis-M antiarmor weapons with delivery instructions attached. Other equipment discovered in captured strongholds also include Russian AT-4 Fagot and Italian Milan antitank weapons, as well as a variety of sophisticated observation devices, including night-vision systems and remote-controlled cameras.

However, the weapons with the most political impact in this conflict were the short-range, unguided artillery rockets, such as the Iranian-built Fajr-3 (now being found in large numbers) that fell on Israel by the hundreds. Despite the bombing campaign, thousands of these weapons were already in Lebanon and in Hezbollah's hands before the airwar began.