People gather at the funeral of the children. USA Today/Reuters.
Israel has vowed retaliation after a Hezbollah rocket killed 12 Druze children and teens in the Golan Heights. USA Today. The rocket hit a soccer field and caused massive outrage in Israel. Hezbollah denied the Israeli claims that they were responsible for the attack. The US confirmed the attack was committed by Hezbollah and is trying to work on a diplomatic solution. However, Israel says that Hezbollah will pay a price for the attack. Civilians in Israel and Lebanon have fled the border region in fear of further exchanges.
My Comment:
You have to feel bad for the Druze. They have been stuck between Israel and the Arabs for years now and this is just another example of that. Losing 12 children and teens in a terror strike with no military objective probably makes things a lot worse.
I have little doubt that Hezbollah is responsible for this attack. Hezbollah apologists are claiming that this was an Iron Dome missile that went off course, which seems unlikely. It does happen in Ukraine frequently, so it's not outside of the realm of possibility but I doubt it. This was in the Golan Heights, and I doubt that the Israelis' Iron Dome is active in that region.
Regardless, it seems likely that we will see some kind of response to this by Israel. It's not a question of if, it's a question of when and how much. Israel has been moving towards open conflict with Hezbollah for awhile now and it's not a surprise that the would be considering going to war with them. Hezbollah has been regularly launching rocket strikes against Israel since October7th.
The problem for the Israelis is if they can actually manage a two front war. They have not finished their war in Gaza and opening up another front is not the smart thing to do militarily. Though Hamas has largely been defeated they still exist and if they pull out now they risk having Hamas regroup and rearm. But if they don't they might not have the military power they need to fight Hezbollah.
Keep in mind that Hezbollah is a lot stronger in terms of military than Hamas ever was. As an Iranian proxy they have capabilities similar to the Houthis in Yemen, which have caused both the US Navy and Israel itself a massive headache. They have a large rocket force, large numbers of infantry and a drone force, things that Hamas really didn't have. Not to mention they will get more support from Iran and Yemen than Hamas ever did since they are directly Iranian proxies.
There is also the fear that Iran itself could be brought into the war if the Israelis are too aggressive. Iran and Israel can't do too much to each other directly but Iranian proxies outside of Hezbollah could join the war and both sides could launch missile strikes and even air strikes. And both sides may have nuclear weapons at this point.
The other fear is that the United States could easily be drawn into this war. If Iran gets drawn into the war I don't see how we don't get involved. Indeed, we are already an active combatant in the Red Sea conflict against the Houthis so it's not unprecedented.
And Iran probably senses the weakness in the United States. They all know that Joe Biden is a lame duck president who is both senile and incompetent. And they also may believe that he will not respond to an attack both due to his obvious weakness and the fact that US-Israel relations have chilled under his administration.
Indeed, the last thing Democrats need right now is for the Middle East to heat up. They have no way to please their base on this issue, if they support Israel they lose their radical wing, if they don't they lose Jews. Indeed, they will probably lose both if a war breaks out, which seems rather likely at the moment...
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