Israel has known for years that it has a de facto border with Iran, notwithstanding that the Islamic Republic lies 1,000 miles to the east.
The de facto border is to the north - Lebanon. The President of Iran is heading there this week. He will be close enough to see Israeli houses and border guards.
The route down from Beirut to the south will be lined with Iranian flags, huge billboards bearing the beaming image of the President, and thousands of Lebanon's Shia Muslims responding to a call out from Hizbollah. The images this will produce could be construed as a warm welcome for a visiting Head of Government, or, proof that southern Lebanon is a client 'state' of Iran and the border is Iran's border, and front line, with Israel.
President Ahmadinejad will venture as far as the towns of Bint Jbeil and Maroun A-Ras, both damaged in the 2006 Hizbollah -Israeli war. In Maroun A-Ras Hizbullah has built a replica of what Israel calls The Temple Mount and Muslims call The Noble Sanctuary. On top of it is an Iranian flag.
There has been some reporting that President Ahmadinejad will 'throw a symbolic stone' towards the border fence and the Israeli soldiers standing behind it. I doubt this. He might look a bit of a clown, especially if the stone didn't travel very far. Besides, the Hizbollah chief, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, said last week “ I would tell him: ‘A stone? You are capable of throwing more than a stone’,” . He should know as the President gives his organization about $200 million dollars a year to buy missiles which can reach deep into Israel.
There are unconfirmed reports that Ahmadinejad is planning to recognize Lebanon as an official Iranian base in the Middle East and has already described it as Iran's border with Israel This has not gone down too well with many Lebanese, especially in the Sunni, Christian and Druze communities.
They know, at a time of growing fears of a return to civil war, that Hezbollahs guns, paid for by Tehran, may soon be turned against them.
So why is Ahmadinejad going? You could argue it is to cement Iran's position as the growing power in the Middle East, and to strengthen the perception that the USA is in decline in the region. Ask yourself; who does the visit benefit? The Republic of Lebanon, or the Islamic Republic of Iran?
