One year ago to the day, the Lebanese Shiite terrorist Hizballah sent a unit across the border into Israel and ambushed an Israeli patrol, killing eight of its members and kidnapping two. The raid, followed by a Katyusha rocket attack on northern Israel sparked the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and a 34-day war.

Today, military sources report that Hizballah is in better military shape than ever before. its sponsors, Iran and Syria, have not only replenished the rocket stocks depleted by daily barrages against Israeli towns and villages, but topped them up by 50%. Whereas Hizballah started the 2006 war with 12,000 rockets of different types, today the Lebanese Shiite terror group has accumulated 18,000 in its arsenal.

Drawing lessons of that war, Hizballah has doubled the number of teams trained to launch rockets and given them a fleet of all-terrain vehicles and motorbikes for speedy movement between firing locations.

Israel for its part has been heavily training its regular and reserve ground troops to be better ready for the terrain of a future war. They have also been carefully pinpointing Hizbullah positions to be able to hit them with satellite guided missiles if and when war breaks out.  A main concern in a future conflict is the presence of small independent rocket launchers and anti-tank teams. If a war does break out Israel may revert to its original attack plan that was shelved a year ago. This plan called for a Flank maneuver where Israel land troops would land further north and push south in a pincer action to obliterate the Hizbullah. This will be the major move if war does occur.