The weeks that followed the pager mass terrorism across Lebanon, and the soon-followed assassination of Hezbollah’s top leadership, have Israel drunk on tactical successes. With that came a reinvigorated confidence in the IDF’s ability after a year of strategic fiascos in Gaza.
However, the ecstasy was cut short by Iran’s most coordinated ballistic missile attack against Israel in history.
The attack came in retaliation to Israel’s assassination of Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and the killing of Hezbollah’s three-decade leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut’s Dahiyeh district.
The developments have raised the hot Middle Eastern temperature to a near boiling point, with the potential of an all-out regional war materialising.
The shaking hands of Benjamin Netanyahu as he gripped a stack of paper vowing counter-retaliation against Iran, in the aftermath of the attack, may have indicated Iranian success. This is despite Tel-Aviv and Washington downplaying its effect. ….more
