Marking its 65th anniversary on April 15, the state of Israel can note with satisfaction that the threat that has accompanied it since its foundation — namely being occupied by an Arab army — has been lifted, at least for the foreseeable future. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which was the declared casus belli for all past wars, is overshadowed by a much larger conflict — the one between Sunni and Shiites. Facing its most significant threat — a nuclear Iran — Israel finds strange bedfellows: the Muslim Brotherhood.

A respectable British newspaper claimed earlier this week of April 7 that Syrian President Bashar Assad had withdrawn his forces from the Israeli border toward Damascus. But glancing through the binoculars reveals a different image: The border brigades are still deployed there, and unlike the situation in many parts of Syria, these Syrian units in the Golan Heights still function for all intents and purposes as an army. Notwithstanding, they no longer threaten Israel, and it is highly unlikely that they will in the foreseeable future, as this review of Israel's borders and neighbors will show. Having been poised for decades to stop a Syrian invasion or sudden seizure of the Golan Heights, the IDF's 36th Division no longer grapples with the issue of how to stop Syrian tanks from crossing the barricades. It is more concerned by the possible influx of refugees or the arrival of terrorists at the border fence that Israel is currently building in the Golan.

Next to this formidable fence, the one that was built in 2000 on the Lebanese border seems small and inferior. When Israel pulled out of Lebanon, that fence was considered cutting-edge technology. Today this is Israel's quietest border. The tables have turned: The once quiet Syrian border could turn into a terrorist front, whereas yesteryear's tense Lebanese border has quieted down. Yet beyond it awaits Israel's largest military challenge: Hezbollah with its massive stockpile of some 80,000 rockets and missiles. Nevertheless, the Hezbollah of 2013 operates not only under the deterrence achieved in the Second Lebanon War seven years ago [in the summer of 2006], but also under the constraints of its political standing in Lebanon. Headed by Hassan Mahdavi, the Revolutionary Guard's watchdogs, who have been chaperoning Hezbollah commanders for the last seven years, make sure that the huge military array that they had built in Lebanon will be put to use only when Tehran gives the order. Armed to the teeth with rockets, Hezbollah was built to ward off an Israeli strike in Iran, and if such a strike were to take place — the organization would be the retribution. These Iranian watchdogs make sure nobody opens fire — neither too early nor too late. 

While serving as chief of staff, Israel's incumbent Defense Minister, Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon, proposed to "let Hezbollah rockets gather rust." That strategy is further reinforced nowadays when Hezbollah is up to its neck with the war in Syria, struggling ever more to market itself as Lebanon's defender. Assad's fall will further weaken the standing of the Shiite militia, possibly forcing it to choose between becoming an unarmed political Lebanese party or remaining a forward armed Iranian division inside Lebanon.