Israel's preemptive strike doctrine is likely lowering its political threshold for action amid growing threats from Iran and its network of allies, but this shift is unlikely to deter future strikes on Israel and will instead increase the risk of sparking a larger regional war. On Aug. 25, the Israel Air Force (IAF) announced it had launched a large preemptive strike on Hezbollah's arsenal and rocket launchers to prevent a mass strike on Israel. Israel claimed that the strikes helped weaken the barrage of missiles that Hezbollah launched into Israel shortly thereafter, and was trumpeted by Israeli politicians and defense figures as a successful operation. The actual damage on the ground was less clear, with limited Hezbollah casualties suggesting a marginal impact on the contours of the Lebanese militant group's Aug. 25 attack against Israel, but the IAF strike nevertheless indicated that Israel's preemptive defense doctrine had moved into a...
