Bibi feints right, goes left

Oh, he's a sly one, that Netanyahu!

When the IDF took out that Hezbollah convoy in Syria on 18 January, we thought, "here we go!" It's Netanyahu with his predictable pre-election escalation. It's the time-tested Netanyahu strategy of shaping the landscape in such a way that he makes himself look like the indispensable "strong hand."

Even Israelis who loathe Netanyahu fall for that one again and again.

But the wily fox seems to be taking a different tack. After the 100% predictable Hezbollah retaliation of the past week, we expected Southern Lebanon to be consumed in fire and brimstone. Instead, we get some vaguely conciliatory verbiage about how back-channel messages from Nasrallah indicate that Hezbollah is not wanting an escalation...

What the hell is that all about? Has the Greatest Leader Since Moses gone soft?

So aside from the immediate bombardment of a few Lebanese border villages, there has been no retaliation for the Hezbollah attack, and for the moment at least, it appears that the PM is treating this as a balanced ledger.

Not only that, but today we learn that Israel is cooperating in an investigation into the death of that Spanish peace-keeper who died in that initial retaliation.

Bibi cooperating in an international investigation of Israel?

There you have it! Bibi the "strong hand" is yesterday's man...

He has remade himself as a man of peace, moderation, and reconciliation, just in time for the election!

With election less than two months away, Netanyau duly ramps up the provocations

It remains to be seen how Nasrallah will respond to yesterday's wholly unnecessary and manifestly illegal attack in Syria.

While serving no strategic purpose whatsoever, this cynical bit of electioneering allows Netanyahu to escalate tensions so that he can then pose as the "strong leader" just in time for the elections. Cynical beyond measure and dangerous beyond belief! What could go wrong?

Hezbollah weighs in on the Israeli casualty debate

We've had occassion here to comment on the foolishness emanating from the upper reaches of Likud about how in the event of an Iran war, "only" a few hundred Israelis will be lost.

The buffoons making these claims are also the ones who love to repeat ad nauseum that there are, at any given moment, 200 or 500 or 700 thousand, depending on the speaker and the speech, hostile missiles pointed at the Holy Land.

Well, here comes Mr. General Secretary of Hezbollah, putting a number on that foolishness. Hassan Nasrallah yesterday opined that in his view tens of thousands of Israelis would perish in the event of another war with Lebanon.

And he's just talking about Lebanon. Iran has many more much larger missiles.

Nasrallah is of course fully aware that any war with Israel is going to take the lives of tens of thousands of his people too. Which is why he isn't about to start one.

But his numbers do make a sort of sense. How these idiots in the Knesset can on Monday claim hundreds of thousand of missiles are pointed at Israel, and on Wednesday assure the populace that only a few hundred citizens will be lost in the event of the war they are itching to start, beggars belief.