© Mahmoud Zayyat, AFP
Last week,
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuffed all existing Rules of Engagement (ROE) in Iraq and Lebanon, showing his readiness for war and an apparent willingness to ignite it. For the first time since 2006 his drones violated the old rules of engagement; an Israeli drone exploded in a southern suburb of Beirut, in unclear circumstances. Despite this lack of clarity and the attack's less than obvious conditions and objective, a few hours later Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah promised to attack Israel in retaliation for the killing of two Hezbollah operatives in Syria.
Now Netanyahu has attacked again. Israeli jet attacked a 1982 base of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command FPLP-GC) in the Lebanese Bekaa Valley.
This is a strong indication that Netanyahu accepts the challenge launched by Nasrallah, with all its consequences. It also indicates the continuation of Israel's policy of provocation, its "long arm" that, it is claimed, can reach any target (without exception!), and its willingness to teeter on the edge of the abyss of war.
There is room for doubt about the
explosion of a suicide drone in the suburb of Beirut, particularly as the objective was apparently insignificant from the intelligence and military points of view (damage to an empty building where the Hezbollah public relations office is situated) as reported by the local media.
Nevertheless, it is clear that Israel would not risk of war with Hezbollah after 13 years of abstinence without targeting a substantial objective worthy of Hezbollah's predictable reaction. Most probably, Prime Minister Netanyahu evaluated that the destruction of the target in the suburb of Beirut with a suicide drone could save many Israeli lives, and that the death of a few Israeli soldiers as "collateral damage" - a certain consequence of Hezbollah's forthcoming hit - is an acceptable loss.
But it is highly unlikely that Israeli intelligence failed to identify the target Israel hit in Aqraba, 15 km from Damascus airport, used as a base for Hezbollah in Syria.
Israel may have wrongly identified the house as an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) base - it is easy to guess that wherever the IRGC is present, Hezbollah is with it in Syria - a mistake that led to the
killing of two Hezbollah members.
Comment: Let's see. Immigration fraud, tax fraud, student loan fraud, possible voter fraud, bigamy, and now infidelity. Things just get better and better with Ilhan Omar.
She could have been a force within Congress pushing back on the Israeli Lobby, the punishing sanctions on Venezuela and Iran, and the plight of Palestine. If she isn't impeached and removed from office for her criminal actions, it's unlikely she will ever see a second term.