Tensions Escalating On Israel's Northern Borders

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.

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