And the winner is....

Many analysts have speculated on who won this latest Middle Eastern war. A majority thinks the Hizballa David defeated the Israeli Goliath.

Before we debate who the winner is, let's state who the clear loser is: Lebanon. With over a thousand deaths, a devastated economy, a seriously damaged infrastructure, and the end of an foreseeable tourist boom, Lebanon is the big loser of this war.

The world, however, wants to know who the winner is, and doesn't care much for losers. The two candidates are Israel and Hiballa.

Israel's biggest loss in this war is its deterrence. For a whole month, and to the last day, Israel was not able to even reduce the itensity of the Katyushas striking its North. It was unable to stop Al Manar (Hizballa's TV station) from broadcasting, and suffered relatively heavy losses. The myths of the omnipotence of the Israeli Mossad, the supreme power of the Israeli Air Force and the indestructibility of the Merkava tank have been shattered.

Hizballa's biggest loss was also deterrence. The thousands of rockets and missiles it fired on Israel cause relatively little damage and few casulaties. Ironically, over half of the deaths on the Israeli side were Arabs. This is bad news for Iran who was counting on this deterrence in preventing the US and Israel from hitting its nuclear intallations.

On the ground, the two sides had reached a stalemate. Israel seemed unable to launch its customary lightining fast offensive and was bogged down for a while around Bint Jbeil and Maroun al Ras. Israel's armored corps took the brunt of the casulaties, with pictures reminiscent of the Yom Kipur war. But Israel was able to prove, after some hesitation, that it could strike anywhere in Lebanon through its daring comando operations, in the Baalbeck region and around Tyre. The Israelis were even able to capture a number of Hizballa operatives during these raids.

From a number's perspective, Israel has captured over a dozen Hizballa operatives, a much higher number than the two Israelis captured at the beginning of the war. While Hizballa has kept its casualties secret, there is little doubt that the Shiite militia has suffered heavier losses than the Israeli side.

The reason why there is no clear winner or loser in this war is that the war has not ended. The International Community has just pressed the pause button for a while...