Editor’s note: Salhani’s essay about the potential for escalating violence in Lebanon takes special significance with the assassination of Lebanon's Industry Minister and Maronite Christian leader Pierre Gemayel.
The summer war erupted and escalated due to the miscalculations of its protagonists, Nasrallah and Olmert-weakening both. It shifted the focus from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to confronting a "quartet of extremism."
