ALJAZEERA: Everything about Hezbollah’s attack on an Israeli border patrol on Wednesday seemed precisely calibrated to send a message of “deterrence” while signaling a desire to avoid a full-blown war. What’s less clear, however, are the motivations behind the Israeli helicopter strike 10 days ago that provoked Hezbollah’s retaliation.
Six anti-tank missiles were fired at a convoy traveling in unarmored Isuzu Challenger jeeps on Wednesday. Three of the missiles hit their targets, killing two Israeli soldiers and wounding several. By skill or luck, the Alawite residents of the tiny enclave of Rajar escaped largely unhurt, although one of the rockets that went astray did cause significant damage to a house, and several residents were reportedly lightly injured. Then, rather than attacking the rescuers, attempting to capture a soldier or escalating elsewhere along the front, Hezbollah resorted to a broad barrage of shelling aimed at the largely uninhabited Mount Hermon.
The attackers also appear to have chosen their targets in a way that carefully avoided breaching Israel’s sovereignty. All of the areas in which Israeli forces came under attack on Wednesday were territories in which they are, under international law, occupiers. Moreover, although the village where the convoy was attacked is part of the Golan Heights, it is widely associated with the Lebanese-Israeli conflict. Hezbollah prefers to engage Israel on home turf rather than in Syria, where a confrontation would benefit anti-Assad forces and undermine the Lebanese movement’s mission to strengthen the Syrian president’s rule. A confrontation with Israel on Lebanese turf may not be desirable, but it is something Hezbollah has survived before… (more)
