00:00Why do you think it is that Israel has decided to expand its operations in Lebanon once again?
00:07I mean, a ceasefire is in place, isn't it?
00:09Sort of. So a lot of us have started calling it a less fire because, as you noted,
00:15it's never really been a true ceasefire to begin with.
00:18There were ongoing attacks, by the way, both ways.
00:22I mean, Hezbollah is also continuing to lob missiles and quite lethal drones, actually,
00:27at Israeli soldiers as well.
00:30So it's continued to go both ways for weeks now.
00:32And now it has ramped up. It has intensified, as you mentioned, since Monday.
00:37And the reason for that is it's a couple of things.
00:40One of them is that it's not looking like an Iran deal,
00:43or at least not a comprehensive Iran deal, is around the corner.
00:48And Trump has basically given a carte blanche to Bibi to let him do what he needs
00:55to weaken Hezbollah enough so that there is more space for a peace deal.
01:01The fact is that you have two sides now, and this has been remarkable, and I've been watching it myself,
01:06I mean, involved in it myself.
01:07You have two sides that agree that the problem is Hezbollah.
01:12But the Lebanese government and military does not have the capability to go or really willingness to confront Hezbollah head
01:20-on,
01:21using force, Lebanese force, against Hezbollah.
01:25But you have this unique moment as well, where you've got two sides that genuinely want peace,
01:29that have committed to this path toward peace.
01:32And Hezbollah in the way, Hezbollah, and by the way, Speaker of the Parliament, Nabi Barry,
01:36who is also doing in part Hezbollah's bidding.
01:39And so Hezbollah needs to be further weakened, and President Trump has said to Bibi Netanyahu,
01:45OK, well, then you do what you need to do to weaken them so that we can pivot to peace.
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