Israel is currently waging a war of nerves with the members of the radical axis of the Middle East: Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas. Against that backdrop, reports have been stepping up of improved rocket-firing capability of the members of that axis and the possibility of an Israeli response.
The danger that a regional war will break out shortly has decreased somewhat, according to intelligence officials, but that also means the cold (er ) war is being waged elsewhere.
There’s an arms race and competition over operational plans, intelligence gathering and deterrence – and of course, there’s media-assisted psychological warfare.
You’ve got to be naive to believe there’s no connection between Friday’s (London ) Times report about Hezbollah’s secret arms depots in Syria and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s warning to European officials about the same exact topic just a few days earlier.
Sunday’s Haaretz report about satellite photographs of Syrian military installations, which are available online via Google Earth, is also related.
Israel is very troubled by the increasingly close operational ties between Syria and Hezbollah and by the flow of advanced weapons into Lebanon.
