Given the difficulties of recruiting agents within the party, Israel relies heavily on technology to peer beneath Hezbollah’s veil. These technologies vary from the ubiquitous reconnaissance flights of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or drones, to wire taps and surveillance devices incorporating long-range cameras which can transmit data via short-burst transmissions.

Hezbollah also relies not only on its ever-watchful cadres for its security, but upon the extraordinarily sophisticated signals intelligence and electronic warfare assets it currently possesses.

Its a matter of when, not if.

Nasrallah says Hezbollah will hit Tel Aviv airport if Lebanon is attacked.

There is an element of bluff in this. Hezbollah’s ability to take the battle so deep into Israeli territory is questionable. More likely, this is an in-kind response to Hillary Clinton’s pressurizing on Iran (understood among U.S. foes as a pro-Israeli position) that should not be underestimated. The Hezbollah leader’s ability to wage asymmetrical warfare to advance his group’s political agenda is proven. There’s not much doubt that Hezbollah’s position in Lebanon and the region is stronger today than it was before its 2006 mini-war with Israel.

If the U.S. wants to support a democratic political order and clean water in Lebanon–both good ideas–it has to deal with Hezbollah. The Shiite party/militia, while officially proscribed by the U.S. government  as a terrorist organization,  also plays by the rough but recognizable rules of Lebanese democracy.

Hezbollah, representing the country’s impoverished and frequently rural Shiites,  has gained control of the country’s Ministry of Agriculture.  Last week U.S. ambassador Michele Sison told the London daily Asharq Alawsat that U.S. support for the country’s agricutural sector would continue.

We [also] continue to support [clean] water management projects, because our studies show that almost 50 percent of [clean] water sources may be lost if they are not managed in a good manner, and we are working on a number of sites to ensure this. In cooperation with state institutions and municipalities, we have contributed to providing clean water to around 27,000 people in the al-Shouf and Bekka regions.

Sison added that U.S. could have no dealings with the Hezbollah minister, Hussein al-Hajj Hassan, but added, “The programs that are present will continue.”

In other words,  the Lebanese technocrats get U.S. money but the minister gets no face time with Washington interlocutors.  Hezbollah can live with the arrangement. Can the U.S. Congress?

The Beirut daily Naharnet, no friend of Hezbollah, takes note.

–Aluf Benn in Haaretz.

Jersualem Post: Ship proves Goldstone Report encourages terror.

Asharq Alawsat: Israel’s fear of Goldstone.

“Whilst certain incidents remind us of others, as we are in the midst of uproar over the Goldstone report on the Gaza war, then why haven’t we seen Arab reports informing us of how these armed groups use innocent residents as shields in their own wars and how they obtain finance and weapons? !”

When it comes to armed Shiites, Sunni Arabs tend to side (quietly) with Israel.