Israeli media is awash with reports and analyses on an upcoming war on Iran-backed Shiaa militia Hezbollah. Buoyed by inroads in the Syrian war, Hezbollah has bolstered its regional foothold, raising fears in Israel that it may have acquired and smuggled game changing weapons into its Lebanese strongholds, and prompting Israel to carry strikes inside Syria against the Lebanese militia. The drums of war are beating again 12 years after Israel and Lebanon were left gutted by a war in which Israel achieved tactical victory, destroying Lebanese infrastructure and instilling fear in civilians, but failed to attain the strategic goal of defeating Hezbollah. The paper claims that Hezbollah might find an opportunity to strike Israel in the North as it seems distracted with a war against Hamas in the South. Whatever the outcome of the war on paper, Haaretz on the other hand deems that Israel and Lebanon “ maintain a balance of terror, as seen during the Second Lebanon War”.

Source: The North Africa Journal February 08, 2018 14:15 UTC