Israel Tries for a Knockout Blow

As a teenager, I took boxing lessons. What I learned from that experience—and I commend a bit of pugilistic training to all budding civilian strategists—is that you can take a punch and keep on going. But if your opponent can fire off a combination that connects—jab, jab, jab, cross, hook—you begin staggering, and then the blows will keep raining down until the coach calls an end to the round, or you throw in the towel.

That is what the Israelis have done to Hezbollah over the past two months. First they killed Fuad Shukr, the top military commander of the Lebanese militia. Then they detonated thousands of pagers used by its members. Next they exploded walkie-talkies. Then they launched hundreds of sorties, targeting missile and rocket depots. And now,