Strategic Assessment

The exchange of fire that takes place every few months on the northern border between Israel and Hizbollah evokes time and again extreme comments in the Israeli political scene, such as calls “to put the lights out in Beirut” or to attack Syria, and other demands for sweeping strategic retaliation against Hizbollah’s tactics. In practice, Israel adopts a far more moderate approach to the complex situation along the Lebanese border. The caution employed by Israel and Hizbollah – each in its own initiated moves and responses to the other – contributes to the relative stability maintained along the Israeli-Lebanese border.