I'm John Batser with Bill Raggio Foundation for the Defense of Democracy as Senior Fellow.

Long War Journal is where to follow this reporting and because we're very pleased to be

joined by Seth Franceman of the Jerusalem Post and the foundation for the

defensive democracy reporting on the north. Most recently Seth followed a story about a training underway for the

Northern Command of the IDF, the officer corps. The question here is

training for what an offense or a defense the

harassing fire from Hezbollah continues with casualties. Last time I checked

80 to 100,000 people were evacuated and wanted to go home, but the border is live.

So what do we know right now, Seth, about this training preparation?

The Latani River was mentioned as a goal to drive

Hezbollah back across the Lutani. Is that in the near future? Do we know anything?

I mean if we knew anything that would probably be a bad thing I don't think we want to notice you know if that was leaking they're going to

go on an attack but I think that what we know is that Israel has been messaging a lot about being up for getting ready for an offensive, getting prepared.

What that means basically is this. In the first month of the war, it was a big chaos in the north,

but Israel was scrambling to send enough troops there

to stop a Hezbollah invasion that Israel was worried was imminent.

And then there was a thought process

to maybe, you know, preempt that. And then Israel decided to wait.

And so the soldiers that were sent up, there were reserve soldiers, they were taken off the

line after about a month and a half or two months and they were trained.

But they were trained, you know, in how to take villages and stuff if they had to.

Basically refresh their memory at, you know, fighting in that environment.

...