With a few words, a Lebanese Army officer destroyed, on Aug. 17, the illusion that Israel had achieved anything in this war.

At a televised Lebanese Army parade that was also broadcast on Israeli TV, the officer read a prepared text to his assembled troops, who were about to be deployed along the Lebanese-Israeli border.

This is what he said in Arabic: “Today, in the name of the comprehensive will of the people, you are preparing to be deployed on the soil of the wounded south, side by side with the forces of your resistance and your people, which have amazed the world with their steadfastness and blown to pieces the reputation of the army about which it has been said that it is invincible.”

In simple language: “The comprehensive will of the people” — the will of all parts of the Lebanese public, including the Shiite community. “Side by side with the resistance”: Side by side with Hezbollah. “Which have amazed the world with their steadfastness”: The heroism of the Hezbollah fighters. “Blown to pieces the reputation of the army about which it has been said that it is invincible”: The Israeli Army.

But not only the balloon of the redeeming Lebanese Army has been punctured. The same has happened to the multicolored second balloon that was to serve as an Israeli achievement: The deployment of the international force that would protect Israel from Hezbollah and prevent its rearmament.

Now there is a “trauma”, much bitterness, a feeling of defeat and of a missed opportunity in Israel. Hence the demand for a strong Commission of Inquiry that will cut off the heads of those responsible. But the politicians and generals will try to restrict the inquiry to the technical aspects of the conduct of the war:

This war has no name. Even after 33 days of fighting and six days of cease-fire, no natural name has been found. The media use a chronological name: Lebanon War II.

This way, the war in Lebanon is separated from the war in the Gaza Strip, which has been conducted simultaneously, and which is going on unabated after the cease-fire in the north. Do these two wars have a common denominator? Are they, perhaps, one and the same war?

The answer is: Certainly, yes. And the proper name is: The War for the Settlements.

The war against the Palestinian people is being waged in order to keep the “settlement blocs” and annex large parts of the West Bank. The war in the north was waged, in fact, to keep the settlements on the Golan Heights.

Hezbollah grew up with the support of Syria, which controlled Lebanon at the time. Hafez Assad saw the return of the Golan to Syria as the aim of his life. He did not want to risk another war on the Israel-Syria border. Therefore, he patronized Hezbollah, so as to convince Israel that it would have no quiet as long as it refused to give the Golan back. Assad jr. is continuing with his father’s legacy.

Without the cooperation of Syria, Iran has no direct way of supplying Hezbollah with arms.

The solution is on hand: We have to remove the settlers from there, whatever the cost in wines and mineral water, and give the Golan back to its rightful owners. Ehud Barak almost did so, but, as is his wont, lost his nerve at the last moment.

It has to be said aloud: Every one of the 154 Israeli dead of Lebanon War II (until the cease-fire) died for the settlers on the Golan Heights.

The 155th Israeli victim of this war is the “Covergence Plan” — the plan for a unilateral withdrawal from parts of the West Bank.

Ehud Olmert was elected four months ago (hard to believe! only four months!) on the platform of Convergence, much as Amir Peretz was elected on the platform of reducing the army and carrying out far-reaching social reforms. In the course of the war, Olmert still announced that he would implement the “Convergence”. But last week he conceded that we could forget about it.

The Convergence was to remove 60,000 settlers from where they are, but to leave the almost 400,000 settlers in the West Bank (including the Jerusalem area). Now this plan has also been buried.

What remains? No peace, no negotiations, no solution at all for the historic conflict. Just a complete deadlock for years, at least until we get rid of the duo Olmert & Peretz. All over Israel, they are already talking about the “Next Round”, the war that will at long last eliminate Hezbollah and punish it for besmirching our honor. That has become, so it seems, a self-evident matter. Even Haaretz treats it as such in its editorials.

In the south, they don’t speak about the “Next Round” because the present round is endless.