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Second Lebanon War Revealed Iran's "Shi'ite Crescent"
(Ha'aretz) Yossi Melman - In evaluating the Second Lebanon War, with all due regret over the 121 soldiers who died and the hundreds more wounded, Israel came out of the war with significant strategic and political assets. The northern border has been quiet for five years. Contrary to Hizbullah's wishes, the Lebanese Army deployed in the south and an international force was stationed along the border, creating a barrier. Hizbullah's fortification line along the border was destroyed. Hassan Nasrallah has in effect been in hiding for five years, for fear of being assassinated by Israel if he shows his face in public. The Israel Defense Forces' deterrent power has been restored. True, Hizbullah has tripled its stores of missiles since the war, and upgraded them, but it presumably would have done so in any event. But the war's most important consequence, arguably, was the disclosure of the extent of the connection between Hizbullah and Iran. It was Jordan's King Abdullah who coined the term "Shi'ite Crescent" to stress Iran's expansion into Lebanon via Iraq and Syria.