Hezbollah and Iran's rhetoric concerning threats to retaliate against Israel for that country's strikes against Syrian military targets over the course of the past two years escalated after the recent Israeli air strike which killed 12 senior Hezbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards paramilitary forces in Quneitra, Syria. Which, as it happens, transpired shortly after — just three days in fact — Hezbollah's leader Sheikh Hasan Nasrallah threatened retaliation for those aforementioned Syrian strikes, which all appear to have been launched in order to prevent Hezbollah from acquiring sophisticated anti-air and anti-ship missiles in the Syrian military's arsenal.The Jerusalem Post writes that according to “Western intelligence sources,” the Israeli strike which killed those senior figures was launched because the targets were allegedly planning to launch rockets, conduct bombings and infiltrate Israel's Golan Heights frontier with Syria. One Kuwaiti daily even goes so far as to claim a "knowledgeable" source told them that Israel knowingly targeted the high-ranking Iranian official who was killed in that strike. If those sources are indeed accurate than the Israeli strike would technically be a preventive one. Furthermore it would directly contradict an Israeli source Reuters quoted the other day which claimed that Israel didn't know who it had targeted and as far as it was concerned was targeting ordinary guerrilla fighters operating along that often volatile frontier.There has been some talk on the part of Hezbollah, the Assad regime and the Iranians training militant forces to “combat Israel” . In other words proxy militants which would likely have their fingerprints all over them. But we have seen in Gaza that when Israel is attacked it often holds the ruling authorities and regimes in the territories and states from which the attacks originate responsible. A policy which dates all the way back to the border wars of the 1950s. In Gaza today if Islamic Jihad fighters launch a volley of rockets over the border into Israel it is Hamas who is held responsible by the Israelis for the attack since Hamas are the ruling authorities and are therefore, in theory, responsible for the policing and the security of that territory.Today Israel's Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon clearly applied this same policy and practice to Lebanon and Syria when he said that, “Israel will see the governments, regimes and organizations beyond its northern border as responsible for what emanates from their territory.”He added that his country “will exact a price for any harm inflicted on Israeli sovereignty, civilians and soldiers.”Hezbollah and the Syrian regime certainly have face to maintain in front of their own people and their supporters. Especially the Syrian regime which has been threatening to retaliate for quite some time now. Hezbollah's supporters expect it first and foremost to be a force whose purpose is to combat Israel and not to prop up the regime in Damascus . Which has been a costly policy in both blood and resources and is something Hezbollah's supporters have expressed reservations about.But at the same time both sides really cannot afford a war with the Israeli military. Especially Assad who only controls about half of his own country's territory and has a military which is stretched and an economy which is in dire ruin . A conventional war with Israel would be a very costly disaster for them. Similarly in Lebanon that country would pay a great, and grave, cost if it was subjected to another Israeli bombardment as part of a military campaign against Hezbollah forces there. Especially in light of the fact it is presently struggling to host one-million Syrian refugees, a staggering amount for a small country like Lebanon.The next few days and weeks will be telling. Again one hopes that if we are to see any escalation it will be limited to an escalation of the decades-old war of words between these foes.