Hezbollah All Bark, No Bite on Gaza

Leaders of the Islamic group Hezbollah have been plenty vocal about the situation in Gaza, but Hassan Nasrallah hasn’t ordered his Lebanon-based militia into action or fired any missiles. And he’s unlikely to do so, analysts tell the New York Times, because Hezbollah believes Palestinian ally Hamas can win, and because it doesn’t want to risk another devastating Israeli assault on Lebanon.

Nasrallah claimed victory in that 2006 conflict, but not before more than 1,000 were killed and much of Lebanon laid to waste. “The community and the country are not up for another war just 2 years after the last one,” said one professor. Now that Hezbollah has an official role in Lebanon’s government, it’s unlikely to act unless Hamas’ situation becomes truly desperate. (More Hezbollah stories.)