[Wall Street Journal] Ronen Bergman - The two recent explosions at Hizbullah munitions bunkers in South Lebanon have highlighted Hizbullah's weakened geopolitical status, a diminishment which no one could have foreseen at the end of the last war. In 2006, Hizbullah was seen as having triumphed. But since then its political stature and its autonomy have been significantly reduced. In addition, Israel's intelligence coverage of Iran and Hizbullah is far superior today to what it was in the past. A planned attack targeting the Israeli Embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan, was foiled. The Israeli security services also shared information with Egyptian authorities that led to the arrest of a Hizbullah network intending to kill Israeli tourists in Sinai. Senior military officers in Israel's Northern Command are confident that the embarrassing outcome of the last round will not be repeated. "By all means, let the Hizbullah try," one officer told me two weeks ago. "The welcome party that we are preparing for them is one that they will remember for a very long time."
2009-10-16 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive