By Beatrice Khadige
Israel's repeated air strikes against the Lebanese army risk destroying the very institution Israeli leaders say they want to promote at Hezbollah's expense, analysts say.
Israeli leaders have repeatedly demanded that the Lebanese army deploy to the international border and disarm the Shiite militant group, putting a stop once and for all to its cross-border rocket attacks on Israeli towns.
Resolution 1559 adopted by the UN Security Council in 2004 requires the Lebanese government to disarm all remaining armed groups on its territory and give the army a monopoly of force, an obligation repeatedly cited by Israeli leaders.
But a pre-dawn Israeli air strike Tuesday saw 11 Lebanese soldiers killed in a barracks east of Beirut, following a wave of raids targeting army radar stations Friday.
"The Israelis are in the process of attacking the very instrument of implementation for Resolution 1559," said Joseph Bahout of Beirut's Insitute of Political Studies.
"The Israeli offensive is not going to help the Lebanese state or its efforts to impose its sovereignty," he warned.
"The army risks falling apart under the pressure."
Lebanon's multi-confessional army, currently headed by the respected Christian general Michel Soleiman, was painstakingly put back together in the aftermath of the country's devastating 1975-90 civil war.
"The Israelis are in the process of attacking the institution which represents the only Lebanese solution to the problem of the south," said a former commander, who asked not to be identified.
When Israeli troops pulled out of south Lebanon in 2000 after a 22-year occupation, Lebanese troops did not deploy to the international border, instead leaving the area under the control of Hezbollah, whose capture of two soldiers in a deadly raid last week prompted the current Israeli onslaught.
Israeli researcher Yiftah Shapir, of the Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University said there was a contradiction in Israeli policy.
"Attacks against the Lebanese army conflict with the objective of the Lebanese army deploying in the south," Shapir said.
But he added that the "Israeli army is obliged to operate against armed forces that open fire or help Hezbollah."
Deputy chief of staff Major General Moshe Kaplinski said Israel had targeted Lebanese army radar stations out of concern they were being used to help Hezbollah.
Mustafa Alani, senior security consultant at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Centre, said that even without the Israeli onslaught, the Lebanese army's 70,000 mainly lightly armed troops were ill-equipped to rein in Hezbollah and secure Israel's northern border.
"They are not really part of the army," as most of them carry out police work rather than that of a real army," Alani said.
"It is not a fighting force. Hezbollah is far stronger than the Lebanese Army."
According to the "The Military Balance ", an annual report published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, the Lebanese army numbers 70,000 troops, including conscripts, of whom at most 25,000 or so have experience from the civil war.
It has 310 main battle tanks, mainly old Soviet-made T-54 and T-55 models. It also has 1,257 armoured personnel carriers and 541 artillery pieces, as well as a paramilitary force of 13,000 men, a tiny air force of 1,100 personnel and still smaller navy of around 1,000.
