I'm John Batchel with my colleague Jonathan Shanzer, the Foundation for Defense of Democracy.

The Reuters headline is suggestive but unclear.

Israel agrees to talks on Lebanon border to free five Lebanese, according to the prime

minister's office.

Now, the last time I checked, there was a ceasefire in the north.

The IDF was maintaining five strong positions.

Otherwise, the Lebanon armed forces were current, present, supposed to be present.

And Hezbollah decapitated was on its back foot.

What's changed?

Nothing's changed.

I would argue that, you know, you've got a Lebanese government that is still trying to break free of the current restraints put on it and the pressure that it's feeling from the international community to convert this moment into a true

opportunity to remove his Bala from the country. I don't think it's happening, John. I just don't

see the will and I don't see the capability. And those are the two things that are necessary

for anything to move here. The UN interim forces in Lebanon remain feckless. They're unable to do anything here.

And if you saw it, there was a speech delivered by Niam Kossum, the new Secretary General of

He's admitted that Hisbalah has taken its lumps, it's weaker as a result of the war with Israel. I think we all can see that,

but he refuses to lay down his arms. He refuses to see defeat. And so what that's doing is

setting the stage for future conflict with Israel. Doesn't mean that it's going to happen now or

next week or even next month, but certainly

nothing's changed here fundamentally other than a weakness and setback suffered by Hisbalah.

Israel has to think very carefully now about whether it wants to preemptibly move on Hisbalah

and finally dismantle the group further. In other words, do it more seriously than what's already happened,

...