In June 1982, I was a supremely self-confident young officer with the rank of 1st Lieutenant. I was convinced that the Israeli army was the finest military force in the world, and my outfit was one of the IDF’s elite reconnaissance units. We were the crème de la crème, and I thought there was nothing we could not achieve. So as my armoured personnel carrier nosed its way across the border, I remember thinking: “this should be simple enough.” But that very night the hard reality of war shattered my cocksure assumptions. The initial objective of my unit was the Beaufort Castle, a 12th century crusader fortress perched on a mountain cliff overlooking northern Israel. The PLO had converted the Beaufort into a heavily fortified forward observation post for Palestinian artillery. We captured the Castle, but only after a close-quarters fire-fight that began at dusk and lasted until after midnight. Of the 80 young Israeli infantrymen who climbed the Beaufort ridge that evening, six were killed and 13 wounded. I never came to question the basic justice of the war. Then, as now, Israel had the moral and legal right to defend itself from terrorists who operate freely in a neighbouring country. But as the breaking dawn revealed the sight of so many of my friends lying dead, I realised that things would be much more costly than originally envisaged. The semi-autonomous PLO enclave in southern Lebanon that caused so much grief to Israel during the early 1980s is now a thing of the past. But it has been replaced by a much more serious threat from Hezbollah. Like its brother Islamic radical movement, Hamas, Hezbollah is dedicated to the proposition that Israel must be destroyed to make way for a Muslim Arab state of Palestine. And these jihadists have put principle into practice by targeting Israeli and overseas Jewish targets with terrorist violence. With its arsenal of Iranian rockets, Hezbollah has now managed to inflict damage on northern Israel that far exceeds Yasser Arafat’s wildest dreams. But far worse than any injury to Galillee is the destruction that Hezbollah jihadists have visited upon their own people. Collateral casualties are an unavoidable consequence of even the most well-executed military campaigns, and this tragic reality of modern war has been exacerbated by jihadist cynicism. The Israeli army makes every reasonable effort to strike only valid military targets. But Hezbollah has raised hiding behind its own civilian population to a Machiavellian art form. It stores Katyusha rockets in the basements of civilian homes; it fires volleys into Israel from the midst of crowded villages. Hezbollah’s leaders do not hesitate to place non-combatants in harm’s way because they know that civilian casualties make for good publicity. These jihadists are willing to sacrifice, not only their own lives, but the lives of their wives and daughters on the altar of holy war against Israel. The deployment of civilians as shields by Hezbollah has been so blatant that it attracted criticism from the U.N., an institution not noted for its pro-Israel sympathies. United Nations humanitarian chief Jan Egeland could not remain silent in the face of what he saw during a visit to Beirut. My message is clear, declared Egeland: “Hezbollah – stop this cowardly blending in among women and children!” Retired Canadian Major General Lewis MacKenzie described the same Hezbollah tactic being applied to United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon. In a radio interview, MacKenzie related the contents of an e-mail he received from a Canadian officer who was killed in that tragic nighttime Israeli airstrike on a U.N. position: “What he was telling us was that Hezbollah fighters were all over his position and the IDF were targeting them.” The Israeli military is faced with a Hobson’s choice in Lebanon. Either the IDF sits by passively, or it strikes back, knowing full well that despite its best efforts, civilians will inadvertently be hurt. Thus Israel is damned if it does, and damned if it doesn’t. As would any nation in a similar situation, the Jewish state has chosen to do. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has acted to defend his people because that is the primary responsibility of all sovereign governments. The Israelis will keep grinding down the jihadists in Lebanon, bit by bit. But where Middle Eastern terrorism is concerned, all roads lead to Teheran. And as long as the Islamic Republic of Iran is there to provide logistical and financial support, Hezbollah will ultimately be able to rebuild. For so many reasons — nuclear weapons, promoting terrorism, and the oppression of the Iranian people — the mullah-cracy in Tehran has outlived its time. Regime change in Iran is the only real solution. And sooner would be better than later. – Ted Lapkin is director of policy analysis for the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council.