With a whisper in his ear from his military secretary, Benjamin Netanyahu cut short a briefing with journalists after his speech at the United Nations and hurried to a secure line.

Thick smoke was still rising over southern Beirut when he was told that the airstrike he had approved from his New York hotel room only hours earlier, had been a success.

Despite growing confidence within IDF circles on Friday night, it wasn’t until the following morning that they publicly confirmed the target and the result: the leader of Hezbollah was dead.

In 2006, the last Lebanon War, Israel tried and failed to kill Hassan Nasrallah. They’ve no doubt had opportunities in the years since and not acted on it for one reason or another, but, in the words of a senior Israeli official to me, “finally enough was enough.”

Over the past 18 years Nasrallah had grown Hezbollah in his image, expanding its forces, building its infrastructure and significantly expanding its arsenal. He wasn’t just the leader of Hezbollah, he was a global figurehead of anti-Israel resistance. With Iran’s help, Hezbollah became one of the best armed non-state militaries in the world. It is now decapitated and in disarray.

During the past decades Israel has also been at work, steadily gathering........

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