Last month, after Shalit was captured, the Israeli air force further embarrassed the Syrians by plunging its planes into Syrian airspace and staging a flyover of a residence of President Bashar Assad. The buzzing of the leader's home was widely interpreted as a warning to the Syrians because of their support of Hamas.
Hezbollah's action Wednesday could be read, in part, as Syria's response.
In Lebanon, ever since overt Syrian military control was shaken off, pressure for Hezbollah's disarmament has increased.
Dramatically linking Hezbollah with the cause of freeing Lebanese prisoners may help deflect that pressure. As the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon slipped into the dimmer reaches of memory, many Lebanese had begun to suggest that Hezbollah's weapons were more trouble than they were worth. The guns drew scrutiny from the United States and a warning from the United Nations.
Among Lebanese struggling to cast off the taint of their country's 1975-90 civil war and steer the nation back to prosperity, calls for Hezbollah to lay aside its weapons and incorporate itself more fully into the government and army have become increasingly vocal.
On Wednesday, despite Nasrallah's call for unity, opinion in Lebanon was quickly divided.
Fireworks, cheers and cries of "God is great!" rang through the pocked streets of the heavily Shiite southern suburbs of Beirut as word of the captured soldiers spread.
But in the polished eateries of Beirut's downtown, newly rebuilt from the ruins of the war, some diners grumbled through their lunch hour.
"What's happening now is dragging Lebanon into the unknown. Nobody has the right to draw Lebanon into such a conflict," former President Amin Gemayel, a right-wing Christian, told the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. "This is unacceptable, and we reject it."
Last year, when Hezbollah abandoned its usual low political profile to take over two ministries and seat 14 members of parliament in the current government, some observers believed the Shiite Muslim militant group was preparing to reinvent itself as a purely political force. Those hopes flourished in spite of Hezbollah's repeated insistence that it would keep its guns and continue the fight against Israel.
Wednesday's raid made clear Hezbollah's position.
"Basically, they are saying, 'to hell with Lebanese politics.' I never thought Hezbollah would disregard so much the Lebanese politics and mood," said Goksel, the former U.N. advisor. "It is certainly a very clear message that they are not going to disarm. It's quite a gamble for them."
Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, author of "Hezbollah: Politics and Religion" and a professor at the Lebanese American University, said it was apparent that Hezbollah had never intended to give up its weapons.
"They joined the government for the exact opposite reason -- to shield the resistance. It becomes harder now for the government to turn around and say, 'We reject [Hezbollah's guns],' because they'd be addressing themselves," she said.
"The state is auxiliary to Hezbollah, which is really the army and the state."
Times staff writer Stack reported from Cairo and special correspondent Abouzeid from Beirut.
