Terrorist organizations have a problem.

One one hand they want more resources for terrorism, more control of the population, and more legitimacy from other countries. On the other hand, they still want to destroy Israel as quick as possible.

The problem is, the former comes with a high price tag if you want to keep doing the latter.

The PLO wanted it, and it found itself forced to be more creative in its long term destruction goals. Now it has to use denials, diplomacy, education and proxy terror groups where once it merely had to hijack airplane, kill babies, and tell the world it was them.

Hamas wanted it, and now it finds itself having to actually take responsibility for the lives of its supporters, which of course it has made miserable; and of course it needs to be more extreme to keep holding on to that power.

So now these terrorists are in a funny situation. They have more money and destructive power than ever.

And there's no denying they use these new resources - effectively.

In fact, as a terror state they are actually causing more damage to Israel than ever before.

They have created more terrorists than ever before.

They have got the world hating Israel more than ever before.


But - they are no closer to overrunning and destroying Israel through violence and military force than before, mostly because the IDF adapts to their new tactics and capabilities.

So instead they find themselves forced to work at that goal through other, slower (less messy) means, such as the media, sympathetic diplomatic channels and education, which are no where near as much fun as openly blowing up a school bus yourself.

Worse, they sometimes even have to explain themselves when they get politically cornered (such as when terrorists who are reported to be in jail are filmed sipping coffee in a cafe and planning new terror attacks).

And now we have Hezbollah that wanted the same thing in Lebanon. If Hezbollah could control the Lebanese Army and the border with Syria, then they would have been in the catbird seat. Unlimited money, weapons, and no more hiding underground.

And they would have used it (just like Hamas and the PLO use it), except they would have found themselves in a situation just like Hamas and the PLO, where in between massive deployments of violence, they have been forced to repeatedly fall back on more creative methods of destruction as the responsibilities that come with keeping power demand it of them (and distract them).

But as one Hezbollah official commented, "We'll go back to doing what we used to do".

Hezbollah still controls their weapons and South Lebanon, and have legitimacy in the government - without any of the responsibilities. Ultimately, that's the ideal situation for any terrorist group.

In reality, they won.