Why did Hezbollah snatch the Israeli prisoners last week?
This was a well-planned operation that took months of preparation. A similar operation failed earlier this year. Hezbollah was tactically very smart, but strategically they were taking a real gamble. The goal was to win the release of [three] Lebanese prisoners being held in Israeli prisons, and probably to bolster Hezbollah’s image and take advantage of Israel’s preoccupation with Gaza. I believe Hezbollah acted autonomously. This was not an Iranian decision to distract attention from its nuclear program. Iran and Hezbollah are organically connected and share a worldview but [Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan] Nasrallah convinced himself that he had a deterrent structure in place that would prevent this type of Israeli response. It was a monumental mistake. 2. Why did Israel react to the incident in this fashion? I don’t buy the notion that [Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert is trying to improve his resume, that he was feeling insecure in the shadow of Ariel Sharon. This is part of a deep
