On chance – Ronen Bergman in NYT:

‘The escalations against Hezbollah began almost by chance after last-minute Israeli intelligence suggested that an operation to blow up pagers owned by members of the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia was in danger of being exposed, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. If the plan was not activated by the beginning of last week, the officials said, Hezbollah might discover it, possibly along with a second operation targeting walkie-talkies.’

(…)

‘The decision to escalate was met with strong opposition from some senior officials, according to three current and former officials who spoke to The Times. They worried that such actions, the officials said, could lead to all-out war with face-to-face fighting and questioned how they would pave the way for the return of Israelis to the north.’

Read the article here.

First, it was reported that the rumor that the operation was about to be exposed was spin and that it was Netanyahu wo decided to blow up the papers, because it suited him. But apparently, it wasn’t spin.

The option of all-out-war without any strategical gains is still possible.

Handling war as if you are playing roulette in a casino.