Anyone who doubts Israel faces multiple threats to its existence should consider last weekend’s exchange of fire with Hezbollah. Only a quick and determined pre-emptive strike from Israel’s air force saved it from widespread devastation.

On Sunday morning, about a hundred Israeli fighter jets attacked and destroyed thousands of Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon that were about to target central and northern Israel. If the rockets had been fired – even allowing for some to be intercepted by Israel – they could have done extensive damage.

In the event, Hezbollah managed to fire about 230 rockets and 20 drones, a fraction of what it had planned to deploy. These did minimal damage. Nevertheless, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah claimed the operation was a success. He said it was revenge for Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in July.

Hezbollah is the most powerful member of an Iran-backed coalition of Islamist groups, known as the ‘axis of resistance’. Others in this terrorist international include Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen and assorted Shia militias in Iraq. All of them are avowedly anti-Semitic and openly dedicated to Israel’s destruction. Hezbollah announced its intentions in its 1988 open letter, stating that its struggle against ‘the Zionist entity… will only end when this entity is obliterated’. It declared that it would recognise ‘no treaty with [Israel], no ceasefire and no peace agreements’ – sentiments its leaders have repeated numerous times over the past few decades.