By Actively Participating In The Syrian Civil War Hezbollah Is Becoming A More Experienced Fighting Force

Hezbollah members holding Hezbollah and Lebanese flags during a rally in Dahiyeh, south of Beirut. Photo by Haaretz Archive

Hardened In Syrian War, Hezbollah Presents New Set Of Threats -- Amos Harel, Haaretz

The Israeli military must adapt to fighting a Hezbollah with urban warfare experience and the ability to launching offensives of its own.

After years in which the possibility of a sudden outbreak of war with Hezbollah loomed high on Israel’s threat list, that prospect seems to have receded. Mutual deterrence is restraining both sides, Hezbollah is up to its neck in the Syrian civil war, and its involvement there has also weakened its grip on Lebanon.

Paradoxically, however, these developments have some disturbing long-term implications. For years, one question that preoccupied Israel was how Hezbollah’s partners in the radical Shi’ite axis, Iran and Syria, would respond if war did break out. And currently, the answer isn’t encouraging: The help Iran and Hezbollah have given Syrian President Bashar Assad’s embattled regime has put the Syrian dictator under much greater obligation to his partners than he was before.

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My Comment: Hezbollah may be an effective fighting force .... but besides Israel they are now a legitimate target in the eyes of Lebanon's Sunni community and within the Sunni Middle East as a whole. My prediction .... Hezbollah's next major battle will not be against Israel but against Sunnis in Lebanon and from Syria itself.