I'm John Batchewith, Jonathan Shanzer, my guide on many matters to do with the Middle East conflict zone.

He is the executive director of the Foundation for Defensive Democracies. I work with Jonathan's

team week by week, and they specialize in following the news in the region, as well as integrating

it with the wider world's concerns.

Strait of Hormuz means that this is a global contest. This is not regional. This is not

for the hegemon of Asia Minor. This is for everything. So I go to the Lebanon conflict because

that is not a subordinate matter to the Iran story. Over the last weeks, I've

been informed that the IRGC is front and center in reconstituting the fighting ability of the

Hezbollah. At the same time, the IDF is not inactive. What is the war goal of the IDF at this point? Are they going

to Latani and stop? They know they have to go into Beirut to stop Hezbollah. Are they going to do that?

Well, John, as I understand it, they have completed the call-up of the reservists and the fighters

and that they have been inserted into southern Lebanon.

My understanding is that for the immediate future, the goal is to completely destroy and clear out a buffer zone of roughly two to four kilometers along the border with Israel.

This will look very similar to the buffer zone that Israel created around what they're calling

the red zone in the Gaza Strip, that 47% of Gaza that is controlled by Hamas.

That buffer zone is going to allow the Israelis to prevent the short-range rockets from

hitting their villages.

And that is the number one goal.

They don't want those attacks that take somewhere between 10 and 30 seconds for impact.

They need more warning time and they're going to get it. On top of that, I think they're going to destroy all of the facilities, the buildings, the homes that have housed the rockets and the weapons.

And they're now clearing them out.

You can start to see the photos circulating online as they capture these weapons and either send them elsewhere or destroy them.

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