PLAYING with fire can prove dangerous. Weeks of escalating skirmishes between Israel and Hizbullah brought the two forces a step closer to outright war when Lebanon’s Shiite militia ambushed an Israeli patrol on January 28th, killing two soldiers. On both sides of the border analysts drew comparisons with the combat between Israel and Hizbullah of 2006, which erupted with a similar ambush and the abduction of Israeli soldiers by Hizbullah. Television channels in Lebanon carried footage of nervous drivers queuing at garages to stock up on petrol.Cooler heads should prevail for now. Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, threatened a bombardment of Lebanon akin to Israel’s summer devastation of parts of Gaza. But his immediate response was limited to a few artillery shells aimed at military targets that killed a UN peacekeeper in south Lebanon.With similar bombast Hizbullah advertised its retaliation for an Israeli airstrike that killed six of its members and a general from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on January 18th. Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizbullah, threated to unleash thousands of rockets and occupy Israel’s northern towns. But his bark has so far also proved worse than his bite. He has limited his attacks to military not civilian targets. The conflict was also focused on a part of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and adjoining Shebaa Farms, a sliver of...
From The Economist: Middle East and Africa
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