I'm John Batchel, Bill Rajo, my colleague and good friend, and he is also a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy.

There is a war within a war in the country of Lebanon, many, many years of Lebanon,

boughsafing the exploitation of its own people by Hezbollah.

This time, Hezbollah has met an adversary that will not back off.

That's the Israeli defense forces, especially since the so-called ceasefire.

The IDF has maintained vigilance along the northern border and more.

And David has guided us into the IDF thinking of watching over Hezbollah and seeking to prevent its rearming or at least storage of arsenal forward before the Latani River.

But now it looks like there's a new offensive underway.

This one is far more ambitious than maintaining a ceasefire.

David, a very good evening to you. I do not have good information. I have generally the map. I'm told that from the Israeli border to the Latani River

is the primary real estate for security for Israel. How so? What's there? What would make it good to hold on to and not

return to Hezbollah? Good evening to you, David. Good evening, John. Well, it's an excellent question.

The magic number in the Israeli mindset in any intervention in Lebanon, even before the rise of

Hezbollah, has always been this 40-kilometer line that, you know,

matches up with the Lutani River.

And the reason for that is, well, northern Israel, it's protecting northern Israel.

A lot of these militias, via the PLO or Hezbollah, much of their short-range missiles, which are the

primary threat that beevils Israel's ability

to protect the north, where we hear about the long-range missiles, the precision-guided missiles.

We underestimate the short-range projectiles. Those have a range of 40 kilometers.

So the idea is pushing Hezbollah both away from the frontier so an October 7th style massacre can't happen.

But why all the way up to the leave?

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