The looming showdown between Israel and Hezbollah will be nothing like the last. A new cadre of battle-tested Hezbollah fighters returning from Syria and a myriad of bolstered alliances have Israel scrambling.
by Darius Shahtahmasebi
April 17th, 2018
TEL AVIV, ISRAEL — In mid-2006, Israel and Hezbollah fought a short-lived ground war in Lebanon, the outcome of which has generally been accepted as a victory for Hezbollah, as Israel struggled to inflict any meaningful damage on the Lebanon-based group. As the Nation’s Sulome Anderson has explained:
The 2006 war was an impressive win for the group, in that it successfully fought the most powerful army in the Middle East until it was forced into a cease-fire, with fewer Hezbollah casualties and more Israeli casualties than expected.”
In the years since, both Israel and Hezbollah have been preparing for and warning about, what can only be described as an inevitable rematch. Preparations for the up-and-coming war have recently escalated, particularly on Israel’s part. It is important to examine the evidence now, as the media pays little regard to these developments which are leading the Middle East to open yet another war on yet another front — one that has the potential to segue into a number of other conflict theatres.
This looming conflict will not play out as it did the first time around. Prior to the 2006 conflict, Hezbollah had approximately 13,000 rockets and used at least 4,000 of them to prolong the conflict in its favor. The group now boasts some 150,000 rockets and missiles, including Russian-supplied missiles that “can hit anywhere in Israel,” according to one Lebanese commander.
