Since Israel's unconditional withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, mostly because of Hezbollah's pressure, that movement has taken over the border area. Its yellow flags, not Lebanon's, flew on border posts and the United Nations peacekeepers, UNIFIL, seemed little more than d�cor.

Hezbollah, which the United States and Israel consider to be a terrorist organization, controlled the border area, received arms from Iran and Syria and Israeli officers said they saw Iranian Revolutionary Guards inspect its positions.

From time to time Hezbollah crossed the international border, that the United Nations demarcated, and attacked Israelis. It kidnapped three soldiers in 2000 and eventually returned them dead; using a ladder to climb over the border fence it attacked Israeli motorists and killed six in 2002.

It sent arms to the Palestinians, financed terror attacks and last week opened fire at Israeli positions and villages to cover up the kidnapping of two soldiers. With an arsenal of 12,000 - 14,000 rockets it expected to deter Israel, and it did for a long time, until Ehud Olmert's government took over.

Military Chief of General Staff, Lt. Gen. Dani Halutz, who outlined the military's goals at Sunday's Cabinet, outlined his goal as weakening Hezbollah militarily, politically, and cutting the support it gets from the Muslim-Shiite population in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah is Shiite.

However, he said, it is impossible to destroy a movement. The ideology will always remain, Halutz said according to a highly reliable account.

In Tel Aviv, a senior military source who spoke on condition he not be identified by name or title, said the army's goal was "to weaken Hezbollah to a point where the Lebanese people and government can deal with them."

Israeli intelligence believes the forceful the flare-up shocked Hezbollah's leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah who may have gambled on another tepid Israeli reaction. Israel started with destroying some of his rockets hidden in basements and garages of private homes.

The Israelis, who suspected Hezbollah had Fajr rockets with ranges of 45 to 70 kilometers (28-43 miles) near Tyre, monitored the area and swooped down on the launchers shortly after Hezbollah fired the rockets that hit Haifa, Sunday. They kept pounding Beirut's southern suburbs that contain Hezbollah's headquarters, security apparatus and the homes of that movement's leaders.

That center no longer exists. It has been deserted, Halutz said.

Israel struck also Hezbollah sites in Baalback near the Syrian border.

In attacks on Lebanese infrastructure it struck Beirut International Airport, roads and bridges.

Its air force carried out more than 1,000 sorties. The navy imposed a blockade on Lebanon's ports and the artillery kept pounding southern Lebanon.

Nasrallah unleashed his rockets firing some 1,400 rockets and mortars. Nine hundred were aimed at military positions and 500 at civilians targets including the cities of Haifa, Tiberias and Naharia and villages including the Arab Majd al-Kurum.

Small Israeli forces are now on the Lebanese side of the border backing D-9 bulldozers leveling Hezbollah's positions despite the shooting and the mines that had been placed there, Halutz said.

There will be a "fire zone," a kilometer deep, in which there will be no Hezbollah presence, he said.

These blows hurt Hezbollah but did not break, disintegrate or crush it. The Israeli army did not release any estimates of how much of Hezbollah's arsenal it destroyed. "They can still fire many Katyushas," the senior military source said and Sunday and Monday those rockets slammed into Haifa, near Nazareth and Afula, the southernmost point they have hit so far.

The Israelis now seem to be heading for another track: Getting the Shiites in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah's grass roots, to sour on it.

The Director of Military Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, reckoned that the Lebanese Christians, the Sunni-Muslims and the Druze who want an independent Lebanon, free of Syrian pressure, want Hezbollah disarmed. However this group lately weakened, he said.

The other, pro-Syrian faction includes Nasrallah and his Hezbollah movement as well as the southern Lebanese Shiites.

The head of the Shabak security service, Yuval Diskin, told the Cabinet that Lebanese public pressure, especially by the Shiites, would influence Hezbollah more than attacks on its physical assets.

According to Israel's intelligence assessment, Hezbollah wants to appear as Lebanon's defender, not destroyer. Lebanon prospered in recent years. Its Gross National Product increased, income per capita climbed, tourists were coming, but some Lebanese are now accusing Hezbollah of turning that country into a Gaza.

Diskin's predecessor, Avi Dichter, who is now public security minister suggested pressing tens of thousands of Lebanese to leave their homes in the south and "move north to press the leadership in Beirut."

And indeed the Israelis warned residents in some southern Lebanese areas "to leave their homes within two hours," the head of the Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Udi Adam said. Israel is about to fire at all the places from which rockets were launched, he said. Many rockets were hidden in homes and garages, and launched from their; that meant striking at those villages.

At the moment Israel does not intend to send ground forces to reoccupy Lebanese territory. One of the ministers Sunday asked Halutz whether such an invasion would be necessary to complete the mission.

"No," said Halutz. "At the moment were not planning (it) but it's not impossible. There are capabilities, operational plans."

So far the Israelis have tried not to target the Lebanese army. After all, it wants that army to be strong enough to control the border area.

However, when anti aircraft units fired at Israeli war planes, the Israelis destroyed them. The Israelis concluded that Lebanese naval radar located a Saar V class missile boat and helped direct a missile that hit it and killed four crewmen so they knocked out most, if not all, of Lebanon's naval radar stations.

"When I hear in the morning what happens, my instinct tells me to crush them," Olmert told his ministers.

However he knew "The fighting will end with political moves in partnership with other friendly countries."

The Lebanese government will be the platform for a solution and that is why Israel is not fighting Prime Minister Fouad Siniora nor the Lebanese people, Olmert said.

Military analysts believe the Lebanese government would need international help to assert its authority and deploy its army along the border. "Siniora himself can't do it. He needs help from friends," the senior military source said.

Olmert seemed ready to pitch in. He decided to inform the United Nations that if that organization would act to return the kidnapped soldiers, stop the missile attacks and threat, help send the Lebanese army to the border and implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559 (that calls for disbanding and disarming all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias), Israel "would be happy" to cooperate.

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