Tensions Escalating On Israel's Northern Borders

Published January 29, 2015 at 1:40 PM EST

Israeli military vehicles are seen burning in the Shebaa farms an occupied area along the Israeli-Lebanese border near Ghajar village, on January 28, 2015, following a Hezbollah missile attack. A missile attack killed two Israeli soldiers and Israel responded with air and ground strikes on southern Lebanon, where a UN peacekeeper was killed. (Maruf Khatib/AFP/Getty Images)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is blaming Iran for the violent flare ups along the Lebanese and Syrian border areas in the country’s north. Yesterday’s shelling by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah was the deadliest escalation in that region since 2006, resulting in the deaths of two Israeli soldiers and seven wounded.

Iran has long backed Hezbollah, which declared its attack an act of retaliation for an Israeli airstrike in Syria earlier this month. That attack killed six Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian general.

Both Iran and Hezbollah are allied with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Syria’s ongoing civil war. Hebrew University and Dartmouth College Professor Bernard Avishai joins Here & Now’s Lisa Mullins from Jerusalem to talk about the latest news from the region

Guest

Bernard Avishai, professor at Dartmouth College and Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He’s written extensively about Israeli politics and blogs regularly for The New Yorker. He tweets @bavishai.