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Israel Steps Up Security Along Northern Border

Hizbullah Vows Revenge for Alleged Israeli Air Strike

Israeli officials were careful to remain ambiguous after four Israeli jets allegedly targeted a missile shipment along the border between Israel and Lebanon. While Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that Israel will do what it needs to defend itself, and an unnamed Israeli security official told TIME magazine that Israel was responsible, the official establishment neither confirmed nor denied that Israel was behind the attack.

By not officially taking responsibility, Israel does not put Hizbullah or Syria (the apparent supplier of the weapons) in a position to force it to take action. Hizbullah originally behaved this time as it has in the past six times last year that Israel allegedly carried out similar strikes by denying that an air strike had occurred.

But then Hizbullah shifted gears, openly blamed Israel and vowed revenge, although it continued to deny reports in Arab media that four fighters had been killed. Israeli analysts said they believe the change was made because Hizbullah is coming under increasing pressure in Lebanon for fighting alongside troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad at the same time as Lebanon is being inundated with refugees from the fighting. In Lebanon, there have been growing calls in Lebanon for Hizbullah to give up its arms.

“In terms of Hizbullah’s political power in Lebanon, this is the worst challenge they have faced since 2000 and the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon,” Bernedette Berti, an expert on Lebanon at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University told The Media Line. “Hizbullah’s main identity has been as an Arab Lebanese resistance movement and one of their mottos has been “we don’t use our weapons against other Arabs – the weapons are for Israel.”

Publicizing the alleged Israeli attack gives Hizbullah more ammunition in its fight to keep its weapons – to use them against Israel.

Israel went on high alert along its northern border – canceling soldiers’ weekend leaves and sending more troops toward the border. An Israeli military official said Israel is prepared for a Hizbullah attack.

“We certainly recognize that Hizbullah is a serious threat to the state of Israel,” a military official who could not be named according to army regulations told The Media Line. “It is a very very advanced and well funded and well armed terrorist organization. It is recognized as such by the US, the European Union as well as other countries. The Israeli army sees Hizbullah as a proxy of Iran which is funded by Iran and trained by Iran right on Israel’s border.”

Hizbullah has an estimated 100,000 rockets that can reach all parts of Israel, the official said, more than it had before the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah.

“The organization is taking advantage of the civilian population and hiding these rockets in the basements of homes and in hospitals,” the official said.

Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah also said the Israeli attack was not on Hizbullah alone, but on all of Lebanon. Earlier this month, Lebanon announced a new government, after a ten month deadlock. The new Prime Minister, Tammam Salam, is a Sunni lawmaker has said he wants to hold presidential elections before President Michel Suleiman’s term expires in May.

The influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria has taken a toll on Lebanon. The small country of four million is barely able to cope and there have been growing tensions between the refugees, who are often willing to work for very low wages, and the Lebanese population. The new Lebanese government does not want a war against Israel, but if Hizbullah retaliates for the alleged air strike, it could find itself drawn in.