BREAKING: Hezbollah Living Room / Weapons Depot Explodes (Plus: Kills Senior Operative?)
If I was the Israeli government and I knew I'd be attacking Iran in 2 months, I'd be doing everything possible now to preemptively expand the IDF's operational freedom in Gaza and South Lebanon. Once the attack happens there's no red line the other side won't cross so the less assets they have the better. In Gaza that might involve getting Shalit the hell out of Hamas's hands no matter what the price. In South Lebanon it would involve eliminating senior Hezbollah operatives.
I haven't written about the Shalit swap, half because I've been crunched for time and half because I've always hated blogging about prisoner exchanges. Protests aside, I kind of think it's going to happen. Hamas needs their prisoner release for the Palestinian elections and Israel's Cabinet seems willing to pay for Shalit. But the strategic picture in Gaza is a sideshow compared to Lebanon.
At least two people were killed in an explosion in a building in a small Lebanese village near the coastal city of Tyre, Lebanon, sources said on Monday evening. The building is reportedly the home of senior Hizbullah official Abd al-Nasser Issa. Security forces in Lebanon reported that both Issa and his son were killed in the explosion. Three other people were reportedly killed in the blast. Hizbullah denied any casualties, saying that only one person was wounded.
Hezbollah has been warning their operatives to watch out for assassinations, but this actually doesn't look like an Israeli hit. It looks like Issa was using his house as a weapons depot and natural selection took its course. Something to keep in mind the next time Human Rights Watch or the UN mouth off about how there's no evidence Hezbollah uses human shields.
These war criminals are eventually going to end up sharing formal control over Lebanon, Netanyahu's "if you want them you own them" warnings notwithstanding. And because our liberal foreign policy community needs a reminder now and again, that means Iran.
So Israel will be dealing with an Iranian controlled army in the service of a Lebanese government entity storing missiles in civilian bunkers and firing them at Israeli skyscrapers - and the Israelis will still get blamed.
References and previously after the jump...
References:
* Shalit Video Increases Pressure on Israel To Secure Soldier's Release [Forward]
* Prisoner Exchange: I Don't Know, and You Don't Know Either [MR]
* Anti-Shalit Deal Protesters Break through Media Iron Curtain [A7]
* PM's Office: Israel to get Shalit video [YNet]
* Unconfirmed reports: Senior Hizbullah member killed in blast [JPost]
* Israel to UN: Lebanon blast shows Hezbollah violating truce [Ha'aretz]
* Hezbollah part of next government: Hariri [AFP]
* Netanyahu warns Lebanon over Hezbollah power-share [Reuters]
* Iran assuming Mughniyeh role inside Hezbollah [Ha'aretz]
Previously:
* Lebanon and Hezbollah Coverage
* Surveillance Video Shows Hezbollah Moving Some Of Their 40,000 Rockets To Israeli Border, War Could "Explode At Any Minute" [Video]
* Marc Garlasco - Is HRW's Anti-Israel Investigator A Nazi-Obsessed Collector?
