By conducting its operation on July 12 Hizballah broke the "rules of the game" that defined its belligerent relationship with Israel. Those rules first emerged in 1993, were codified in written form in 1996, and continued following the Israeli withdrawal of 2000. For its part, by over-reacting to the Hizballah operation Israel has effectively torn up the rule book. A key rule was that both sides would refrain from striking civilians, which neither side has respected for the past five days.
Israel might have used the breach of the rules by Hizballah to diplomatic advantage to push for the implementation of Resolution 1559. Instead, Israel seized the opportunity to pursue it broader hegemonial goals in the region, not least to improve its capacity to strike at Iran. Now, clearly, the rules need to be reframed in a way that limits Hizballah's capacity for autonomous and provocative adventures and also checks Israel's power and use of force against Lebanon.
Aljazeera.Net - 'Only the beginning', warns Nasrallah: "'We will use all means,' he said. 'As long as the enemy has no limits, we will have no limits.'"
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