There was a time when war for Israel meant facing Egypt and Jordan and worrying about Saudi Arabia and beyond. But not this time, or not yet.

In the face of kidnappings and Hezbollah rockets, Israeli warplanes have pounded Lebanon for the last week. The audience for these attacks sits in Syria and Iran — in the “Tehran-Damascus axis of evil,” the Israeli prime minister said yesterday.

So, Hezbollah and Israel have both taken the conflict up a notch. Maybe a big one. Maybe big enough to shake moderate regimes and bring on a regional death-match. Some in Israel and Iran may want just that.

Hear about the latest eruption in the Middle East, and where it ends.

Guests:

Anthony Shadid, correspondent for the Washington Post, reporting from Haifa

Babak Deghanpisheh, correspondent for Newsweek, reporting from Lebanon

Shai Feldman
Director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University, previously Head of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University

Augustus Richard Norton, Professor of Anthropology and International Relations at Boston University and author of “Amal and the Shi’a: Struggle for the Soul of Lebanon”

Vali Nasr, Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, author of “The Shia Revival.”