This is John Batchelor, conversation with Jonathan Schanser of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy,

about Beirut and an embassy sent by the United States to negotiate in some fashion a de-escalation of the months of rocket and anti-tank and

drone fire from Hezbollah against the people of Israel. What is to be done? Looking for a diplomatic

solution, Jonathan is not promising about that. Belives is one needed, but what we have here is a contest that is a

much much larger war than anything we've seen in many decades in the Middle

East.

Hezbollah is dug in and is vast and is well-financed and has hundreds of thousands of rockets.

Jonathan Shenzer, on what appears to be moments before a war of the North

unless more of this later tonight.

Thank you. I think it's a good question, John. I don't know who's in charge in Beirut. I don't think anybody does.

This is a inconclusive government for years running now a state that has run up a debt of something like

200 billion dollars and this is a country with no exports to speak of.

It is a basket case of a country.

And so Hezbollah has taken full control of it politically, militarily. There is no entity that can

force his Bala to do anything in Lebanon. They are effectively the sovereign. It is a satropy state of the Islamic

Republic of Iran. And so when Hochstein goes to Lebanon and tries to cut a deal with the Lebanese.

He's trying to work through third parties

to reach some kind of an agreement with Hezbollah.

But his below is not interested in deconflicting.

Right now, as I mentioned, Hezbollah believes

that the US has restrained Israel,

that Israel is subservient to US wishes,

...