Hezbollah fighter

Like all conflicts, the current conflagration in the Middle East has its trigger points.

And like all conflicts, this one too has an hidden agenda.

The current crisis was sparked by a brazen Hezbollah raid into Israel, in which eight Israeli soldiers were killed and two were captured.

It was a stunning and provocative attack and a gesture of solidarity towards the Palestinian militants in Gaza who have been holding an Israeli soldier since 25 June.

Israel, knowing whatever it does will result in some form of condemnation, has decided enough is enough and rolled out a war plan.

It has responded with air strikes, a land attack and a sea blockade.

For now there seems no end in sight and Israel is determined to decimate the Hezbollah by destroying its infrastructure and support in Lebanon.

On the surface, no one can argue about a country’s right to go after its soldiers who are being held hostage.

But this sudden show of its military might leads us to think that there is a bigger objective in this offensive.

And that target is Iran.

Iran like Syria is a key supporter of the Hezbollah.

The U.S. State Department’s office of counter-terrorism in its report on international terrorism clearly established that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad receives funding from Iran.

It is also known that Hezbollah receives funding and arms from Iran on a regular basis. Both of these groups are considered to be ‘umbrella’ organizations of Iran, in that they act largely under the orders and support of Iran. Arms transported to these groups are primarily funneled through and with the cooperation of Syria.

If this current conflict does not subside, it will only be a matter of time before Iran becomes fully engaged.

Iran as we all know has been frightening the world with its nuclear activities and has been refusing to abide by any of the non-proliferation measures the West has been urging it to adopt.

It has been cajoled and warned to no avail, leaving many to think that surgical air strikes at Iranian facilities maybe the only way out to neuter the threat of a nuclear jihad.

So just how long do you think it will be before an Iranian convoy carrying arms to the Hezbollah gets hit or an Iranian ship tries to run the naval blockade and gets blown out of the water.

It’s a sure bet that Iran will retaliate and pre-emptive strikes will be launched to cripple its reactors and installations of mass destruction.

And when this happens, the kidnapped Israeli soldiers will be a mere footnote in this war.

This, it seems to us is the hidden agenda in Israel’s war that seeks a future peace.