The Israeli raid into the Bekaa Valley on Friday night, allegedly to interdict arms resupplies to Hezbollah, has already been condemned as a breach of the ceasefire under Resolution 1701.

If the belligerents to the recent 32-day war believe they can unpick the shaky truce at will, they do so at their peril. Hezbollah would risk losing the huge cushion of esteem it now enjoys across the Middle East and the Islamic world - and a return to the fight would anger a good many Lebanese.

For Israel, the military and political conduct of the war has already raised enough questions. Ehud Olmert (right) now appears to have committed his country and its forces to potential combat and tension on four fronts - Lebanon to the north, the West Bank and Gaza east and south, and at home among an increasingly restive Israeli Arab community.

For the first time in generations, almost since Israel became a state in 1948, he has allowed the very existence of that state to be put back on the agenda.