International reactions to the 2006 Lebanon War 39% disapproved, and 16% were not sure. When asked to think about the events of the past week in the Middle East, 54% of Americans answered that their sympathies are more with Israel, 11% answered more with Arab nations, 11% both, 11% neither, and 13% not sure. In August 2006, University of Chicago political scientist John Mearsheimer accused Israel of using the kidnapping of its soldiers by Hezbollah as an excuse to attack Lebanon and start the 2006 Lebanon War. Mearsheimer stated that "Israel had been planning to strike at Hezbollah for months. Key Israelis had briefed the administration about
From the Wilderness and Lebanon Ya'alon, wrote a laudatory foreword. The book describes the Second Lebanon War from the perspective of a platoon commander in the Golani Brigade. It records the preparations for battle, the fighting itself, and the responsibilities and challenges that faced him as he led his men forward under fire. The first section records how the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit compelled Israel to respond and fight in Gaza. Battalion 51, part of the Golani Brigade, entered Gaza. From fighting there the soldiers were called to fight in the north, in what came to be called the Second Lebanon War and forms the