Israel eyes Lebanon protests closely

MOUNT HERMON: Looking down on Lebanon from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, soldiers wonder whether the political turmoil in the neighbouring country will weaken arch-enemy Hizbullah or make it more dangerous.

"There, Hizbullah is very, very strong," said Samuel Boujenah of the Israeli military, gazing at a valley where calm was recently shattered by clashes with the Iran-backed group.

He was standing on Mount Hermon, a strategic and fortified outpost at the crossroads between Israel, Lebanon and Syria where Israeli military vehicles patrol and drones buzz in the sky.

It was in this region where on September 1 three Hizbullah anti-tank missiles hit near the Israeli township of Avivim, the first attack near a civilian area since the 2006 war between the armed Lebanese movement and Israel.

Motorists travelling along the winding mountain road still feel the bumps in the bitumen left by the strikes.

The frontlines have been unchanged for years, but it is the events of recent weeks in Lebanon that, Israel hopes, may weaken its foe Hezbollah, which it regards as a terrorist organisation.

Lebanon has been rocked by unprecedented, cross-faith civic protests that have bridged sectarian divides to demand the removal of the entire political class, whom the demonstrators accuse of systematic corruption.

Hassan Nasrallah, the chief of Hizbullah -- a major political player -- has warned the unrest could lead to "chaos and collapse" of the economy.

Now Israel wonders whether Lebanon’s troubles -- and the rising street pressure that is also being felt by Nasrallah -- could spell a threat or an opportunity for the Jewish state.

"We are monitoring what is happening in Lebanon, of course we have an interest," Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus told reporters during a recent Mount Hermon visit.

"We don’t have any involvement in what is going on", he stressed.

But he said Israel remains worried about Hizbullah, which could "collect intelligence, patrol the area and, when they want to, attack Israel" from southern Lebanon, including with precision guided missiles it has been manufacturing.