From focused incursions to full-scale war

Israel hasd declared it's only going to get involved in limited raids and incursions in southern Lebanon to try and set up a sort of buffer zone, pushing back Hezbollah positions. But you don't need two divisions as well as all the other paraphernalia of warfighting to carry out limited operations. This is going to be the full works, take my word for it. Israel feels it has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go all the way and impose on Lebanon, not just the south, a new political, military and territorial framework which will guarantee a terrorist-free region. It sounds an impossible task, but Benjamin Netanyahu has decided it is now or never. Hezbollah, infinitely more powerful than Hamas in Gaza, is going to be targeted until it is no longer a threat to Israel's northern border and beyond. Israeli military commanders have been talking about an historic moment and that is exactly how Netanyahu sees it. First Hamas and then Hezbollah have to be utterly destroyed, and in the process, Iran, their chief sponsor, financier and armourer, will be cut off at the knees, unable and certainly unwilling to risk all by launching a war with Israel which it knows it will lose. And lose badly. So far Iran has been cowed, threatening revenge but doing nothing. If Hamas and Hezbollah are crippled, Tehran will have no other option but to launch direct attacks on Israel. But the last time they did that it was a total failure, with nearly all of the 300 ballistic missiles being shot down by Israel, the US and other allies. The limited incursions in southern Lebanon, therefore, will develop into something much, much bigger because, potentially, if it works, the rewards for Israel and, hopefully for the Middle East in general, will be hugely positive.