I'm John Batsu with my colleague Jonathan Schanser, Foundation for the Defense of

Democracy's Vice President.

I tell a quick story, a young woman, Lieutenant Colonel in the IDF Reserves, lives

nine kilometers from the border in the north.

In the middle of the night routinely, there is a siren that goes off, meaning a drone is incoming to the area.

You have 15 seconds to get to the shelter.

Most nights they don't make it, especially the little girls.

Now, what I'm understanding from speaking to lieutenant colonel is,

the children don't understand why, why they can't have a little longer to get to the shelter.

It's because Hamas is right across the line and Jonathan has been helpful to me for

months to reassure me that something can be done and will

be done is the question but can be done to move Hezbollah back across the Latani River so that it wouldn't be 15 seconds, maybe it'd be 30.

But not yet.

However, Jonathan, there is a suggestion that not yet is closer is that correct.

Every day feels like it's a little closer, John. We continue to see the Israelis pivot to the

north. There were headlines today from Israel's defense minister,

Yavgon, suggesting that the fighting is perhaps trailing off in the south

and that there will be deployments to the north that Israel is

amassing more troops and more armaments and more munitions in preparation for what

could be a very destructive battle in the north, one that I think ultimately

would be decisive as it relates to Hezbollah's future.

There are, I think, a number of questions still remaining. Probably not so many on Hezbollah's side. As I understand it, Hezbollah is trying not to wage a war. They are trying to keep the

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