An observation has been made elsewhere that this is something of a wake-up call for Lebanese people. For the last few years, Israel hasn't been in Lebanon, and Lebanon has been reaping the rewards of relative peace. Booming tourism, a rebuilt infrastructure, and so on. With the departure of Syrian forces, there are really only two groups left: The Lebanese government and its forces, and Hezbullah and its forces. (Which is surprisingly organised group, with some 11 battalions). With foreign forces out of the picture, and Hezbullah only bothering the Israelis, and not the Lebanese government, nobody in Lebanon had any great incentive to deal with the private army of one of the political parties. Why should they? They're getting their tourist dollars, they're at peace for the first time in God knows how many years, what's the benefit to rocking the boat?
Well, now we know.
Interestingly, there were two Lebanese army officers taking the tank officer's course in Ft Knox with me. Seemed decent enough chaps, I hope they're OK.
I guess a question is "What did they expect the Israelis to do after kidnapping two of their troops?"
NTM