The decades-long presence of Hezbollah, a terrorist organization that is much better armed than the Lebanese Army and does not answer to the Lebanese government — and the discovery that Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon reportedly carries a Hezbollah pager — makes a sad mockery of the notion of Lebanese sovereignty.

Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah addressed the nation Thursday in a televised speech, as Israeli warplanes flew over the Lebanese capital, Beirut.