20/08/2008 One day after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned to take measures with no military restrictions against Lebanon if the country “turns into a Hezbollah state”; Israeli Environment Minister Gideon Ezra said on Wednesday that in any new war with the resistance group Hezbollah all of Lebanon will be a target for Israel, including its civilian infrastructure.
 
Ezra told public radio, "The moment the Lebanese government confers legitimacy on Hezbollah; it must understand that the entire Lebanese state will be a target in the same way that all of Israel is a target for Hezbollah."
 
"During the Second Lebanese War we considered the possibility of attacking Lebanon's infrastructure but we never resorted to this option, because we thought at the time that all the Lebanese were not responsible for the Hezbollah attacks," added Ezra, who is close to Olmert.
 
Israeli bombing during the 2006 Second Lebanon War was largely confined to Beirut and the south but the military did hit civilian infrastructure, including Lebanon's main international airport, roads, bridges and a power station.
 
Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said Israel does not consider the entire state of Lebanon to be an enemy but that "the moment Hezbollah takes control of the Lebanese government we will have to address the consequences."
 
Last month, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora formed a national unity government that gives the Lebanese national opposition 11 ministries and the power of veto over cabinet decisions.
 
In a policy statement earlier this month, the new government affirmed "the right of Lebanon, its people, its army and its resistance to liberate its land," a reference to the territories occupied by Israel.
 
Olmert himself made similar remarks to Ezra's during a visit to Israel's home front defense headquarters on Tuesday. "During the war in Lebanon we had a massive capacity that we refrained from using because we were fighting a terrorist organization and not a state, but if Lebanon becomes a Hezbollah state we will not be so restrained," he said.