Here we are again. Missiles from Lebanon, sirens over the Galilee, damage reports, funerals, and the familiar Israeli reflex: strike back, degrade, contain. Repeat in two years.

For seventeen years, Netanyahu’s right-wing governments have had one default setting – military force. Not strategy. Not imagination. The problem with sticking to defaults is that they keep producing the same result.

The thing is, Hezbollah is not primarily a military problem. It is an employment problem. 

The majority of Hezbollah’s fighters are not martyrs. They are employees. Men from poor villages in southern Lebanon who were offered a two-year contract: roughly $700 a........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)