I welcome my colleague Jonathan Shanzer, Senior Vice President for Research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies,

to help me interpret the turbulent headlines from Reuters about the Middle East.

Beirut, these last hours, a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah,

held after two sides struck a deal

brokered by the U.S. and France, but Israel warned local residents not to return to the border

area yet or approach its troops.

I mentioned that we're looking at unknown territory to me because the geography here matters profoundly.

I have been to the north of Israel several times.

It's very, very difficult to tell where Lebanon begins and Israel stops, or where Syria begins and Israel stops.

Very difficult.

This is a crowded landscape with lots of challenges ahead. Jonathan, a very good day to you. A ceasefire. It's not an armistist, it's not a

peace deal, it's not a negotiation, it's a ceasefire. What is it about this ceasefire that is attractive to the Netanyahu government

and the IDF? Good evening to you. Good evening, John. Yeah, look, I think there are a couple

things to point out about this deal. First, it's a 60-day ceasefire, so it gives the Israelis two

months of rest, and those two months will coincide with the lame duck period that Iran

and its proxies may have tried to take advantage of before the Trump administration would come in.

And what this is going to do is going to ensure likely a much longer term ceasefire. It's hard to

imagine Iran, Hisbalah, and the rest, doubling down on

this war after Trump comes in, given the policies that he's known for, the tough positions

that he's taken against them. But I think there is something else that's very different here

that is important to the Israelis, namely that they

have reportedly received a side letter, as it is now being described, from the Biden administration,

...