The country’s military prowess is obvious, but relying on it has become a way of avoiding the path it must now take: diplomacy

They probably thought the world would applaud. The Israeli planners behind one of the most spectacular intelligence actions in the country’s history – targeting thousands of Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon and beyond by exploding the pagers in their pockets – would certainly have expected an ovation for the sheer audaciousness of it.

A plan years in the making, seemingly involving a fake manufacturing company that secured the contract to supply communication devices to Hezbollah before discreetly modifying them into remote-controlled grenades – it’s the stuff of Hollywood. But I suspect the Mossad wanted to be praised for more than its ingenuity and technical prowess.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist