The Iranian government isn’t guided solely by precedent. It knows that a head-to-head contest with Israel is a recipe for disaster.

The single-most-important leader in Iran’s constellation of allied militias, turned the Shiite militant group into the world’s most powerful nonstate armed force.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who transformed the Lebanese militant group into a potent paramilitary and political force in the Middle East, was killed in an Israeli airstrike.