Meticulous Mossad: Exploding Devices.

Hezbollah received the shock of its life when its communication devices exploded. Literally in their faces, pagers and walkie-talkies exploded killing 9 operatives and injuring 3,000 Hezbollah members. The funny thing was Hasan Nasrallah, Head of Hezbollah, warned his operatives not to use mobile phones in case Israel was tracking them. Hence, Hezbollah switched to low-tech and old tech to communicate like pagers and walkie-talkies. How ironic, then that these devices exploded causing such harm and carnage to Hezbollah.

Hezbollah was beginning to suspect that Israel had tampered with its communication devices. So, with that in mind, it is possible Mossad sent signals to the communication devices of Hezbollah triggering their explosion. These events have left Hezbollah shocked and intimidated. The Lebanese population have been told to stay in their homes. Whatever next exploding pens? I would not put anything past the Bond-like Mossad to come up with extremely ingenious ways of attacking Hezbollah. In Jerusalem, this will be seen as Hezbollah receiving a bloody nose. And certainly, this has put Hezbollah on the back foot. However, as is customary for groups like Hezbollah, Hasan Nasrallah took to the airwaves to threaten Israel with revenge. How, when, and what methods Hezbollah will use to hit Israel will remain to be seen. Hezbollah has the option of firing hundreds of rockets into Israel or doing a similar attack on Israel's communications or launching a cyber attack.

Netanyahu has made no bones about the fact that "If anyone hurts Israel then they will be hurt back". Israel has indeed, struck its foes who have struck them. Plans for peace between Israel and its enemies are getting nowhere. Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Galant told his US counter-part Lloyd Austin that the window for peace with groups like Hezbollah is closing fast. One gets the impression that Israel is just paying lip-service to peace talks with Hamas and Hezbollah. Netanyahu is a desperate man a criminal in his own country and a wanted man for crimes against humanity. So, the further he can drag the war out the better for him. Whilst in power, he is safe from prosecution both in Israel and from the international community.

Israel makes a habit of killing off the leaders of its enemies. The most recent was the taking down of former Hamas Ismail Haniyeh in Iran. The killing of a top Hezbollah commander in Lebanon. No doubt, the thinking behind this is that by murdering its enemies' leaders it may weaken or set back groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. Israel knows that taking the head off the snake will not kill the snake. So often, we hear that. In other words, killing the leaders of enemies will put an end to the enemy. While this has worked it does not always. There will always be others to take over the leadership of any group who is an enemy. However, if that new leader is not as knowledgeable or charismatic as the former leader the enemy may struggle to get back on track, at least for a time.

Are these attacks on Hezbollah's ability to communicate an event preceding a full-scale attack on Lebanon? Israel has said in the past it wants to restore calm to its northern border where Hezbollah has been attacking. 90,000 Israeli civilians have fled and there have been fatalities too. So, Israel may be prepared to launch a full-scale invasion into Lebanon to push back Hezbollah north of the Litani River. However, this may be a bad decision. Israel has invaded Lebanon in the past twice, only to come up against ferocious Hezbollah resistance. Israel on both occasions has withdrawn not achieving its goal of neutralising Hezbollah. Israel may have superior tech and weapons able to do considerable damage to Hezbollah and Lebanon. However, Hezbollah knows the terrain of Lebanon, and they are well-trained in guerilla warfare. Something that has broken the Israeli will to fight in the past. If Israel invades Lebanon for a third time, what is the difference this time? What makes it think it can defeat and neutralize Hezbollah this time?

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