November 3,2008: The Lebanese Army has arrested two Lebanese, and charged them with spying for Israel since the 1980s. The two men, who are cousins, collected information on Hezbollah and Syrian military and intelligence operations. Communications gear, cameras and other sensors were found in the suspects homes. One of their cars was rigged with a digital camera that could record traffic for extended periods. The two men confessed.

The Lebanese have caught one or two Israeli spies a year for the last decade or so. It appears that the Israeli have an extensive, and not unexpected, espionage network in Lebanon and Syria. The Israelis are known to pay well, and try to get their agents out of trouble. Still, several Israeli spies have been executed by Arab countries over the last sixty years, as well as a number of innocents (who were prosecuted because the local counterintelligence officials were under a lot of pressure to "do something about Israeli spies.")

Some of these spies are Jewish, but most are local Arabs (Moslem, Christian or Druze) who hate the local rulers more than Israel. Many confess when caught, knowing that, otherwise, long periods of abuse and torture will ensue. The Israeli intelligence effort against its Arab neighbors has been intense, and prolonged. The Israelis also spy on their friends, which is not an unusual practice. But the Israelis tend to be more successful at it, in part because they live in a very rough neighborhood, and face extinction if they do not succeed in keeping their hostile neighbors at bay.