Back in May, Amos Hochstein, US President Joe Biden’s point-man for keeping a lid on tensions between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, spoke in a webinar.
The equivalent of that bus came on Saturday evening in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights when a rocket, which Israel says was launched by Hezbollah, slammed into a soccer pitch in the Druze town of Majdal Shams and killed 12 children. Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the strike.
Will Hochstein’s fear come to pass? If Israel’s Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, is to be believed, it probably will.
The United States has blessed retaliatory action, to some degree.
The response, so far, has been timid.
But on a visit to Majdal Shams on Saturday, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant pledged a heavy response.
“Hezbollah is responsible for this and they will pay the price,” Gallant said. In an earlier statement from his office, he said: