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Source: http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/1.558237
Mutual Deterrence on Israel's Northern Border
(Ha'aretz) Amos Harel - Israeli intelligence sources note a "high level of intimacy" among the Hizbullah-Syria-Iran alliance, though Tehran's dominance is clear. Iran deprived Hizbullah of independent authority to open fire on Israel after the Second Lebanon War in 2006, and it was Iran that ordered Hizbullah to intervene actively in the war in Syria last year, when Tehran feared that the Assad regime was going to fall. Even though Hizbullah does not appear to desire a war at present, the risks remain, principally because there are now a large number of groups active in the area. A good example is an incident in August, in which a radical Sunni organization fired Katyusha rockets into the western Galilee. The quiet on Israel's northern border is founded mainly on mutual deterrence. Although the IDF's vast destructive capability is deterring Hizbullah, Israel is apprehensive about the tens of thousands of rockets in that organization's possession.