Everyone knows that on October 7th, Hamas perpetrated a horrible genocidal attack on Israel.

In response to that attack, Israel committed itself to neutralizing the military threat from Gaza.

On October 8th, not wanting to seem any less

committed to the eradication of the Jewish state, the terror group based in Lebanon, Hezbollah,

began to shoot rockets and missiles into Israel's northern territories. Nearly a full year later,

Israeli towns and villages within Hezbollah rocket range remain empty, and many tens of thousands of Israelis live as evacuees in hotels and departments.

Week after week, month after month, the rockets from Lebanese territory have not stopped.

Israel has occasionally conducted defensive operations, but about one week ago, the Israelis unmistakably increased the

tempo and intensity of their own attacks, taking the fight to the territory of the adversary,

rather than continuing to bear its missile barrage.

Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. This week we look at Israel's

escalation against

Hisbalah and try to decode what is being communicated and how by the Israelis to its

Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah, and his masters in Tehran, as well as what's being

communicated to the United States, and also to all of the Sunni powers who are observing Israel's actions

no less carefully. My guest is the retired Israeli Brigadier General and Defense Strategist

Asaf Orion. Asaf is the Liz and Moni Ruvan International Fellow at the Washington Institute

for Near East Policy. He is a prolific author and thinker not only on

the security architecture of the Middle East, Israeli military planning and strategy, but also on China

and great power competition. If you enjoy this conversation, you can subscribe to the Tikva podcast on

Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Spotify. I hope you leave us a five-star review to help us

grow this community of ideas. I welcome your feedback on this or any of our other podcast episodes

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