A Measure of Justice in Beirut

A week ago , if any group could claim the mantle of revolutionary Islam in the Middle East , it was Hezbollah .

Now, its entire senior leadership has been liquidated and its future is uncertain.

The bombardment that dispatched Nasrallah was amply justified by the laws of war and any reasonable standard of self-defence.

An early Hezbollah manifesto promised to evict outside powers from Lebanon and terminate “the influence of any imperialist power” (besides Syria or Iran ) The group was already a stalking horse for Iranian interests in the Levant by then, created and trained by the Islamic Republic’s Revolutionary Guards Corps .

Hezbollah began by driving suicide truck-bombs into US targets and kidnapping prominent U.S. targets.

Israel and its allies must now brace for a vigorous campaign of counterstrikes.

Iranian deterrence is in tatters and its axis of resistance is now vulnerable and exposed.

Ayatollah Khamenei has pledged revenge (as he always does), but it should not be forgotten that he also vowed to avenge the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in July .