"Israel Is At War"

So says the Israeli ambassador to the United States.

Israel has begun to respond to the kidnapping of two IDF soldiers by Lebanon-based Hizbollah by blockading the Lebanese coast, bombing the runways and fuel terminal at Beirut International Airport, and launching a series of air strikes and bombardments against Lebanese air bases, suspected Hizbollah bases, and Hizbollah rocket launch points.

Both before and since the Israeli response began, Hizbollah launched rockets from southern Lebanon into northern Israel. While the timeline is not perfectly clear, it appears that Israel moved from simply blockading Lebanon to more actively striking Hizbollah targets after Hizbollah stepped up its rocket efforts and began hitting towns in northern Israel. The initial airstrikes on two Lebanese air bases and the Beirut airport only targeted the runways, in order to shut them down. After rockets landed in the Israeli city of Haifa, Israel attacked and destroyed the fuel terminal at the Beirut airport, and other air strikes and bombardments are ongoing.

The situation is changing fast, and it is not entirely clear how far Israel intends to go - or how far Hizbollah is willing to go. Hizbollah is actively trying to escalate the conflict. There is also the question of how much Iranian involvement has occured - Israel claims that Hizbollah intends to send its two captives to Iran. I do not believe Israel would make such a claim without good intelligence to back it up.

If that happens, that is effectively an open admission by Iran that it is elbow-deep in this mess. And it also means that Iran is openly a combatant - which implies the risk of general war between Israel and Iran.

There is no question the Iran is involved to at least some degree - one of the rockets aimed at Haifa has been examined and found to be made in Iran.

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Jerusalem Post
Hot Air
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