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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/21/world/middleeast/israel-lebanon-hezbollah-beirut.html
Israeli Attacks in Lebanon Mark a Sharp Strategic Shift
(New York Times) Erika Solomon - Recent attacks have left Hizbullah in deep disarray. After a hugely destructive war in 2006, Hizbullah's leaders spent years building military capacity they thought could deter Israeli attacks. However, events of the past few days have suggested that Hizbullah grossly underestimated its adversary. "Eighteen years of mutual deterrence has now given way to a new phase of one-sided superiority on the part of Israel," said Lina Khatib, an associate fellow at Chatham House. "The facade that Hizbullah had been presenting to the world of it being an impenetrable organization is shattered, and Israel has displayed with flair how much of an upper hand it has in this equation vis-a-vis Hizbullah." "It has been very clear since the first months of the war that Israel is saying, 'This threat that we lived with for 18 years, we are not able to live with it any more,'" said Paul Salem, vice president for international engagement at the Middle East Institute in Washington. "'We can't have this massive force on our northern border.'"