Friday I saw a news clip in which it was stated that the Patriot missiles were being deployed in Israel in order to protect against the Hezbollah missile attacks.

Ynetnews:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3276133,00.html

states that 3 batteries were set-up in the Haifa area on Saturday (8/05)

Are they effective against the type of missiles being used by Hezbollah?

I recall that they were only marginally effective in Gulf War I - I would assume lessons were learned from that and hope that the Patriot is now knocking the Hezbollah hardware out of the sky...a few perhaps??...maybe 1 now and then?...any at all?