That Perpetual Conflict

"Whoever is behind today's attack will pay the full price."
"For some time, Iran, via Hezbollah, has been trying to establish an additional terrorist front against us from the Golan Heights."
"We are taking strong and responsible action against this attempt. The Lebanese government and the Assad regime share responsibility for the consequences of the attacks emanating from their territories [against Israel].
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

The site where two Israeli soldiers were killed when an IDF patrol came under anti-tank fire from Hezbollah operatives in the northern Mount Dov region along the Israeli border with Lebanon on January 28, 2015. (Photo credit: Basal Awidat/Flash90)

"Hezbollah, another Iranian proxy, is a brutal terrorist organization bent on the destruction of Israel."
"This is just another example of the threats Israel faces -- from Gaza to Southern Lebanon and Syria -- from all proxies funded, trained and materially supported by Iran. It illustrates the danger of a nuclear-armed Iran and the need for the international community to ensure that never becomes a reality."
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird

"[The Hezbollah attack represented a] severe escalation of the situation and we view Hezbollah as responsible."
"Is it going to go further? I don't know, but it could."
Lt.-Col Peter Lerner, Israeli military spokesman

"UNIFIL sent us a message that as far as [Hezbollah] is concerned the incident is over.  I don’t know if the events are behind us. The IDF is ready, deployed for any development. Our long arm knows how to reach wherever is necessary. Anyone who tries to attack us is signing their own death warrant."

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon

Israeli troops patrol the Israeli-occupied sector of the Golan Heights, close to where the strike on Hezbollah convoy was carried out. Photograph: Jalaa Marey/AFP/Getty Images

The raid on the Golan Heights by Israeli attack helicopters that succeeded in killing six Hezbollah commanders and an Iranian general represented Israeli intelligence reports that Iran, through its al-Quds Republican Guard unit was scoping out and planning a devastating attack across the border into Israel at some undetermined time. Just as Israel had put the nascent Syrian nuclear plant out of commission, it targeted that future attack more latterly. A message that Israel would not be easily victimized.

A response was expected. Defences were put in place, as best they could be, to deflect any retaliation. But in war situations nothing is guaranteed, and as each side seeks an advantage, there are some wins and some losses, and the Lebanese border attack by Hezbollah firing a missile at an Israeli military convoy represents one of those losses; two lives lost, others injured. Sometimes a nation that is constantly under threat must make these decisions.

A week had elapsed since the Israeli strike, and the return strike by Hezbollah, Iran's proxy militia, was the response. Not a wholly opportune time for Hezbollah to invest in an all-out, long-term conflict with Israel, given its heavy involvement in Syria, fighting alongside President al-Assad's Shiite troops battling Sunni Syrian rebels and foreign Sunni jihadis alike, including the Islamic State. Hezbollah is said to have lost considerable fighters in that fray, as it is and perhaps feels it has few to spare.

The Party of God considers itself a "resistance movement", under the aegis of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as a martyrdom force. Representing the very ultimate aspiration of a pious Muslim; to sacrifice one's life for Islam. Gloating that for them death is nothing, that the achievement of martyrdom for the cause is an honour all aspire to. As opposed to Israel's and the West's in general high regard for life and personal survival. 

 

It is the Muslim sacred duty to visit Mecca, to proselytize, to dominate, to hound and oppress non-believers, to kill Jews, to promise a more successful Holocaust. The world outside Islam has a moral obligation to remember the genocidal intent of the Third Reich and its near success. One that the Islamic Republic of Iran gloats over, claiming it has been overblown in numbers, but that Iran has the intention and will have the means to ensure that a resurrection of the 'final solution' in the eradication of Israel will become a reality.