Many Israelis feel defeated

JERUSALEM, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Many Israelis -- soldiers and civilians, left and right -- say they think the one-month war with Hezbollah was a failure.

"For four weeks we failed to defend ourselves against daily bombardments against our cities. This is a failure that never happened before," Yuval Steinitz, a Likud Party member, told the Washington Post. "This is going to send a bad message."

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad declared victory within a day of the cease-fire, saying Hezbollah had "defeated the legend of the army that had never been defeated." Hezbollah has also claimed victory.

The soldiers who fought the war complain of plans that changed constantly and of bad equipment and failures of supplies.

"The mission changed every 30 minutes," Sgt. Yuval Drori, a member of the Reserves, told the Post. "There was a great sense of a big mess."

The government and military high command argue that it was fighting a new kind of war.

"You can't judge it in a traditional way," said Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan. "Our war was much more like a war on terrorism than a war against an army."