Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: What is the ultimate goal of "Hezbollah’s force
buildup"?

Udi Dekel and Assaf Orion write that this buildup is "the major direct
military threat against Israel".

They are also aware that Iran now has a presence in Syria.

Yet for some reason, when the experts at the Institute for National Security
Studies set out to consider how Hezbollah’s force buildup might ultimately
be directed against the Jewish State they don't even entertain the
possibility that Hezbollah's attack is part of a larger campaign.

Question: if the experts at Israel's premier security think tank don’t want
to lose sleep over how Israel would address a combined assault by Hezbollah,
Hamas AND Iranian forces is the IDF just as complacent?
============
The Next War against Hezbollah: Strategic and Operational Considerations
Udi Dekel and Assaf Orion
Memorandum No. 167, Tel Aviv: Institute for National Security Studies, July
2017
http://www.inss.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/11-The-next-war-against-Hezbollah-strategic-and-operational-consideration.pdf

Assessment

More than a decade since the Second Lebanon War, the contrast between the
unprecedented years of calm on Israel’s border and Hezbollah’s force
buildup, leaving it the major direct military threat against Israel, is
starker than ever.

...In the current strategic reality, the likelihood that Iran and Hezbollah
will initiate an escalation of the situation against Israel is low. Iran has
no desire to encourage a military confrontation against Israel, especially
as Iran is already over-extended in regional fighting and conflict arenas,
and in light of the reduced overt tension between Iran and Israel, resulting
from the nuclear agreement between Iran and the international community
concluded in July 2015. For its part, Hezbollah, which is up to its neck in
the Syrian civil war, will find it difficult to fight in the long run on two
fronts, where one of the fronts involves fighting with an enemy such as
Israel, while worrying about the implications of such a war for its standing
in Lebanon.

...Israel’s government is endowed with the understanding, power, and tools
to strengthen Israel’s deterrence and reduce the effect of factors of
escalation in order to push off the next round of fighting with Hezbollah to
the extent possible.