Following the well-publicized uncovering of alleged Hezbollah cells in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, news of the arrest of a Mossad-tied cell in the Lebanese port city of Saida caught the headlines of both mainstream Lebanese and Hezbollah-affiliated media outlets. This comes shortly after two former Lebanese security officials were charged with spying for Israel.
Is the timing of this uncovering just a coincidence? Or is it an attempt to deflect much of the negative press Hezbollah has received in recent weeks? The involvement of Lebanese state security services, however, makes it hard to assess if Hezbollah played a part in this roundup. A Hezbollah official’s subsequent commentary on the arrests indicates the group is acknowledging it as a state-led operation.
One would think that all parties involved are involved in clandestine activities on each other’s territories, and the existence of this activity is just an unspoken reality. However, the recent spate of well-publicized arrests on both sides leads one to ask if their is a logical explanation for this jump in ‘activity’. The embarrasment of these incidents, although regional in nature, for Hezbollah coincides with the runup to parliamentary elections in Lebanon, suggesting that the issue of espionage might have political implications for the group.
