A Pretend Army for a Pretend State

If Hezbollah has transformed itself into a conventional army of 15,000 "battle-hardened" troops, that is not cause for concern for Israel which would more easily crush such a tiny "army" that was "hardened" at the price of 2,000 KIA fighting irregular light infantry rebels in Syria and not a large  mechanized modern force backed by artillery and air support that the Israeli army is.

The crushing will be all the easier if Hezbollah believes it has an army and offers it up in conventional battle.

And despite the closer ties between Hezbollah and the Lebanese state (such as it is), Israel would be wise to focus purely on hammering Hezbollah. Smash them up while leaving Lebanon alone and there will be less reason for the rest of Lebanon to have ties to the terror group and sub-state government.