[MENL] -- Israel's intelligence community has determined that the nation's deterrence has been damaged. Officials said the intelligence community has concluded that the military's poor performance in the 2006 war against Lebanon eroded Israeli deterrence. They said the military's failure to defeat Hizbullah has encouraged Iran and Syrian President Bashar Assad to prepare for another conflict with the Jewish state."Israel's military deterrence was damaged in the war," Mossad director Meir Dagan said. "As a result, Assad's self-confidence grew. They are prepared to take more risks than in the past."
On Monday, Dagan's testimony to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee marked the first time that a senior Israeli official reported a decline in deterrence. Over the last few months, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his aides have asserted that Israel defeated Hizbullah and bolstered deterrence.