Updates from Israel’s Northern Front with Lieutenant Colonel Sarit Zehavi Transcript

Disclaimer: This transcript is an edited version version of a transcript created using AI technology and may not reflect 100% accuracy.

The video can be found here.

Sarah: Good afternoon. Welcome to a compelling session with one of my favorite people, Lieutenant, Colonel Sarit Zehavi. Sarit is the founder and president of the Alma Research and Education Center (Alma). Alma is a nonprofit organization dedicated to researching Israel’s unique security challenges on its northern border. Sarit briefs us regularly on the status of the war in Israel’s North. Sarit also briefs hundreds of groups and forums. These including US Senators, congressmen, senior journalists and special visiting VIP groups. She authors countless position papers and updates focusing Israel’s national security challenges in the North. She served in the IDF for 15 years. There she specialized in military intelligence. Sarit holds an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from Ben Gurion University. In 2021, she was selected by the Jerusalem Post as one of the top 50 most influential global Jewish personalities.

I would like to begin by showing a video from an anonymous soldier currently serving in Lebanon. The video depicts the huge arsenal of weapons that Israel forces have found in Lebanese houses in Southern Lebanon.

Sarit Zehavi: The video shows a small sample of the weapons we have found in southern Lebanon. I think you are seeing one of about ten truckloads of weapons we have captured in just the past five days. All of these weapons come from a single village. We have discovered a massive number of rockets, mortars, Katyusha rockets, RPGs, explosives, rifles, guns, automatic rifles, sniper rifles and Kalashnikovs. The plan was to use all of these weapons against Israeli civilians. The number of weapons we have found is difficult to fathom and we found all of them in Lebanese homes in southern Lebanon. We have spent the past few days loading trucks and bringing them out of Lebanon.

Sarah: I think it is really important for people to understand the extent of the weaponry the IDF is discovering in southern Lebanon and the threat it poses to Israeli civilians. The IDF is finding these weapons in the homes of “innocent” Lebanese civilians in southern Lebanon. The IDF also discovered tunnels leading into Israeli communities and homes. Lieutenant Colonel Sarit Zehavi is a pre-eminent expert on this.

Sarit: Thank you very much, Sarah. The video proves what we knew all along but it is still jarring to watch. We are seeing similar videos being published every day here and it is overwhelming. I have no words to describe how we feel when we see this. I live nine kilometers from the border. As I discussed on previous webinars, this means we hear the sounds of war here all the time. Just before I started this webinar, we heard some blasts here and nearby communities received alerts. This is just another day at the office and it is not something new. In fact, I am speaking to you from the bomb shelter at my home

My little girl went to school today for the first time in two months. The home front command only allows us to send our kids to school if their classrooms are in shelters or in safe rooms. We do not have enough of them and so she has not been going to school. Now the community is working to improvise safe classrooms all over the community and she will be able to go to school two days a week. This situation will continue as long as Hezbollah’s fire continues.

I want to share some statistics illustrating what we have been facing here over the past year. Between October 8^th and September 17^th, we experienced a pretty stable war of attrition. Hezbollah attacked us a few times every day. A single attack implied they shot between 20 and 50 missiles at us. The same attack may have also included multiple rockets, projectiles and UAVs. Hezbollah recently fired 50 rockets toward the Galilee in a single attack. Half of those 50 rockets targeted Israeli civilians. Since the beginning of the war, we have lost 25 civilians and 40 soldiers in this area. 60,000 Israelis from 43 communities have been evacuated since the beginning of the war. Civilians living between 0 and 5 km from the border have been evacuated.

Something in Hezbollah’s policy changed in June this year and I cannot put my finger on what it was exactly. Hezbollah’s attacks on non-evacuated areas began to increase significantly. I think this led to Israel’s decision to prioritize bringing our people back home. It moved us from a defensive to an offensive position. Between October 8^th and September 17^th, Israel largely played defense. Outside of eliminating immediate threats and assassinating some commanders, Israel did not take an offensive position against Hezbollah.

The turning point was Hezbollah’s killing of 12 Druze children on July 27^th. At that time, Israel’s retaliation against Beirut felt different from before. This led us to believe things were about to change. On September 16^th, the cabinet finally made a decision to update the goals of the war. The return of Israelis to their homes was added as a goal of the war. This decision was taken after we lost hope that the conflict with Hezbollah would be solved peacefully. From that moment on, Israel focused its offense on two major efforts. The first was removing the strategic threat posed by Hezbollah. This included the elimination of Hezbollah’s advanced, accurate, long range and other munitions. It also included the elimination of Hezbollah’s leadership. Since October 8, 2023, more than 160 Hezbollah commanders and leaders have been killed. 25% of those killed were Radwan brigade commanders. This is highly significant because it relates to Israel’s second major effort or area of focus in the North. This is to remove the threat of a Hezbollah invasion of Israel.

I have summarized the steps that brought us to the IDF ground operation in Lebanon. What you saw in the video is the outcome of that. The IDF is now attacking different areas of Lebanon on a daily basis. I will try and explain the impact of the attacks. I will talk about the million displaced Lebanese and the extent of the damages in Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s weapons were stored in their areas of operation. These areas are South Lebanon, Beirut and the border between Syria and Lebanon. We painted these places in yellow on the map I am showing on the screen. They are Hezbollah’s bases and the places where the Muslim Shiites of Lebanon live. The majority of them support Hezbollah because it was the only organization that was there for them over the past 40 years. Hezbollah provided them with everything from dignity to money. It gave them energy, education, medical and other services, and basically replaced the Lebanese state. As a result, they were persuaded to hide Hezbollah’s munitions. That is why Israel had to change course and to alter the strategic situation.

In addition to the weapons stored in South Lebanon, Israel had to attack the weapons that are stored in Beirut and along the Syrian-Lebanese border. This is where Hezbollah stored its long and medium range missiles capable of reaching Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. That explains why Israeli attacks are creating a lot of damage. The attacks also create a lot of secondary blasts which, in turn, result in Lebanese casualties. When the IDF bombs a weapons warehouse, rockets often fly everywhere and they destroy houses outside of the original warehouse.

Israel is also attacking Hezbollah’s smuggling routes into Lebanon. Both Iran and Syria are smuggling munitions into Lebanon. You saw many boxes of munitions in the video Sarah showed at the beginning of the webinar. On at least one of them, we saw Russian writing and we translated it. The writing said they are Russian munitions addressed to the Ministry of Defense in Syria. We found this box in south Lebanon where we are maneuvering. Clearly there has been a huge munition-smuggling project into Lebanon. These munitions come from Russia and Iran. Components to build munitions are also included. The IDF has already attacked the three border crossings I am showing on my screen. These are the official border crossings. However, there are many, many more unofficial crossings and the border is basically open. There is no fence there in most areas, but there are roads and areas that trucks can drive on. As such, it is going to be a huge challenge to seal this border and stop the smuggling.

Israel is also targeting Hezbollah’s state within the state of Lebanon. That includes their banks. Terrorist organizations transact in cash. We know from Lebanese sources that the IDF has attacked about 16 buildings of Al-Qard Al-Hassan, Hezbollah’s banking institution. Bank bombings create both physical and psychological damage. Hezbollah provides gasoline and energy to its people and the IDF has also attacked Hezbollah’ energy infrastructures, especially those along the Syrian Lebanese border.

As I mentioned, preventing another invasion is the second major goal for Israel’s offensive in Lebanon. On October 7^th 2023, Hamas invaded Israel from Gaza and Hezbollah planned to do the same from Lebanon. This is why we have boots on the ground in Lebanon. The IDF is eliminating underground infrastructures and tons of munitions next to the border. People will not return to their homes if terrorists remain in the towns or open areas next to the border. Hezbollah has anti-tank missiles that could literally be pointed at the windows and kitchens of the men, women and children living in the communities you see on my map. The blue dots on my map are the 43 Israeli communities that were evacuated along the Israeli Lebanese border. This border stretches about 120 km. The distance from the Mediterranean all the way to the border with Syria is about 70 kilometers but the border is not a straight line. That is why Israel needs to protect an area of around 120 km.

UNIFIL is deployed in the areas from the blue line to the Litani River. The IDF maneuver is only a few kilometers from the border into Lebanon. It does not stretch to the Litani River or to Beirut. Four divisions are doing a great work in clearing the towns, villages and open areas situated in what we call the contact line, close to the border. That’s it. That is the entirety of the mission the IDF received from the Israeli government. I do not know if that mission will change in the future but the IDF is saying it is close to completing their current objective. They removed the threats that were there, including the tunnels.

I am not surprised they found tunnels next to the border. Even though we have spoken about the tunnels many times at Alma, the scenes shown on the video overwhelm me. It is very unsettling to see an IDF soldier walking inside the Hezbollah tunnel right next to the border. It is unnerving to see the bags, weapons, vests and helmets packed and ready to go. Everything was prepared for an invasion. The only thing that was missing was the order to invade. This is only one video out of many. Many of the videos being published by the IDF show the motorbikes ready to go as well. We analyzed some of the videos that the IDF published of their attacks in Lebanon. In many cases, we observed 8 or 10 blasts along a line that starts from a town and ends up in an open area. The total length of the line of the blasts is more than a kilometer. The pattern of the blasts indicates that the IDF had bombed a tunnel.

I want to end my presentation by discussing UNIFIL in a little more detail. We have met many times throughout the years. During our discussions, I never said that UNIFIL was not implementing its mandate under UN Security Council resolution 1701. I never demanded that UNIFIL implement its mandate under the resolution. This is because I was aware of the problematic way the mandate was phrased. You can see it on the screen now. There is a contradiction between Article 8 and Article 12 of the resolution. Article 8 holds the Lebanese Armed Forces responsible for keeping the area between the Blue Line and the Litani river free of Hezbollah. On the other hand, Article 12 clearly states that UNIFIL is responsible for ensuring the area is not used for hostile activities. Through the years, UNIFIL has insisted they do not have a mandate to disarm Hezbollah and to enforce UN Resolution 1701. They told us that the word enforcement does not appear in the resolution. They asserted they did not have a mandate to enter towns, villages and private properties in Lebanon. They maintain that was the reason they failed to find all of the weapons Hezbollah stored close to the border.

In the first few years after the 2006 war in Lebanon, Hezbollah transferred most of its military assets from the nature reserves or forested areas in South Lebanon. They moved them into the towns because they knew UNIFIL would not enter people’s homes. Over time, Hezbollah saw just how weak UNIFIL was and realized they could operate inside towns, villages and in open areas as well. It is astonishing how many tons of munitions and underground infrastructures the IDF is finding in open areas. There is no reason whatsoever that UNIFIL did not enter the open areas. UNIFIL cannot use the problematic expressions in resolution 1701 to defend their inaction in this regard.

The video I am showing now is of a Hezbollah tunnel. This tunnel is situated around 100 meters from a UNIFIL position. Our analysis of the terrain in this video revealed that the tunnel is in an open area. Nobody owns this property. Clearly, equipment is needed to excavate a tunnel like that in the rocks. UNIFUL failed to notice that people were digging in the ground. UNIFIL was looking for people wearing uniforms. As long as Hezbollah combatants wore civilian clothing, UNIFIL did not question them. This situation was untenable. It just could not continue.

I hear people telling me that Israel should first cease its fire in the North, and then negotiate solutions. President Biden called for a pause in fighting for 21 days. Do you think Hezbollah will sit down and drink coffee during that so called pause? During the pause, they will smuggle back the equivalent of what Israel took from them. At the same time, they will do everything they can to make sure the ceasefire becomes permanent without an agreement. That is why our leadership is insisting that we negotiate under fire. One more thing. Nobody in the international community put pressure on Lebanon to cease fire when there was no Israeli offensive in Lebanon. Since October 7^th last year, I have not had a normal life here. I have not slept through the night since October 8^th, 2023. This is because we hear blasts almost every night. That has been the situation here and nobody demanded a ceasefire. Pressure for a ceasefire began only after Israel commenced its offensive.

We believe that the only way to stop the violence is via a diplomatic arrangement. We strongly believe in a diplomatic arrangement because we know cannot eliminate each and every launcher that Hezbollah hid either underground or in the houses of the Lebanese people. Hezbollah followed the principle of redundancy. They stored weapons everywhere and in every home. That is what the soldier in the video attested to. It would take years for the IDF to search every home. So, it is clear to us that a diplomatic arrangement is needed. We need your help to make that arrangement a better one. We cannot go back to the same resolution that created the monster we have now. I think I can stop here and answer your questions.

Sarah: I have tons of questions. First of all, I know you have studied Amos Hochstein’s proposed diplomatic solution. How is this proposed agreement any different from UN Security Council Resolution 1701? Would the Israeli government accept any kind of diplomatic solution which denies the IDF the authority to enforce the border with southern Lebanon?

Sarit: I need to make a disclaimer here. Everything I know about Amos Hochstein’s work is based on open-source publications. I do not know how reliable the reports are, be they American, Israeli or Lebanese. That said, we have learned Hochstein’s work is based on a few principles. Firstly, he is still using resolution 1701 as a reference. That is unfortunate because I want 1559 to be the reference. Resolution 1559 calls for disarming Hezbollah completely and not just up to the Litani River. We have rockets falling in the center of Israel every day. These missiles are not stored just in the south of Lebanon and disarming Hezbollah to the Litani River is not sufficient.

Hochstein’s second principle is that the Lebanese army will again be responsible for disarming Hezbollah. Under this scenario, the Lebanese army will get more support from the international community. Unfortunately, Hezbollah is not designated as a terrorist organization in Lebanon. As such, ministers in Lebanon’s government belong to Hezbollah. So, demanding the Lebanese government disarm Hezbollah is something that will never happen. We need to make sure that Hezbollah is not a legitimate entity in Lebanon. That is the only way to do it. We cannot allow them to pretend Hezbollah is not part of the Lebanese government.

I want to say something to the Americans at this point. An agreement is a beginning. It is the starting point for solving a problem and it is not the end of the problem. The end of the problem is the implementation of the agreement. In the Middle East especially, there is a huge gap between the agreement and the implementation of the agreement. We need to focus on the mechanisms for implementing any agreement.

Amos Hochstein said America will give guarantees to Israel. That is very good news and has not existed so far during this war. However, I do not have any further detail about what is included in these guarantees. I truly do not know what they mean. I am also unclear as to what exactly the reference to resolution 1701 implies. Does it imply there will be a Lebanese commitment to disarm Hezbollah from the border to the Litani River. In the past year, we have heard many proposals that suggested Hezbollah could disarm only 8-10 km from the border. I do not know the exact status of the negotiations. As an Israeli, I want to make sure there is an effective mechanism for enforcement. It needs to be made clear that the mechanism for enforcement must be a force willing to fight or clash with Hezbollah.

Hezbollah will not voluntarily disarm in South Lebanon or elsewhere. It is not going to happen and especially not as long as has members in the Lebanese government. As an example, there is a Lebanese minister responsible for all the exits and entrances from and to Lebanon. He is responsible for the Hariri airport and the border crossings that I showed you. He is a member of Hezbollah. This minister is making sure that Hezbollah controls the airport.

Sarah: At this point, is there any kind of diplomatic arrangement that Israel would accept?

Sarit: Of course, as I said, we need a diplomatic arrangement. I want my daughter to go to school and in order to accomplish that, we need a ceasefire. In order to get a ceasefire, we need a diplomatic arrangement. Clearly, we have to reach a diplomatic solution. However, this diplomatic arrangement needs to include an effective enforcement mechanism. We should stop fooling ourselves that UNIFIL is the answer. The Lebanese army by itself, is also not the answer. It is not about money. The Lebanese army can get tons of money and nothing will happen because Hezbollah is a legitimate organization in Lebanon. The agreement needs to involve much more than money.

Sarah: You showed us tunnels leading into northern Israel. How many of these tunnels do you estimate there are in southern Lebanon?

Sarit: I do not know how many tunnels there are. Based on what the IDF revealed recently, I believe there are hundreds of kilometers of tunnels. These tunnels are just a few kilometers from the border. There are an unbelievable number of tunnels. We saw tunnels next to the border that would enable Hezbollah combatants to hide very close to the border, cross very quickly and surprise us. There are tunnels that would enable military operatives to approach the border in civilian clothing. They could then don shoes, uniforms, vests and helmets and grab guns and get into Israel. There are tunnels that enable Hezbollah fighters to hide from IDF soldiers. The tunnels do not only support Hezbollah’s invasion plans. They are also used as strategic tunnels. They enable Hezbollah to transfer launchers and military operatives from one area of Lebanon to another.

I want to mention that there are few face-to-face battles being fought between the IDF and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah fighters either launch munitions from a distance, at the IDF soldiers, or they just ran away. This is truly astonishing. The assassination of Nasrallah, the million displaced people, and the damages in Lebanon, are creating a stir in Lebanon. We see this on the battlefield as well. This tells us something about Hezbollah’s fighters. They are much more cowardly than we thought they were.

Sarah: Recently the IDF captured and detained a Hezbollah sea-captain. Why did Israel detain this sea-captain?

Sarit: The fact that we kidnapped him from the depths of Lebanon indicates he is very valuable to us. This is likely true for two reasons. He has information we want to know and he is planning things we want to prevent. This sea-captain is a senior in Hezbollah’s maritime unit and we believe his arrest will disrupt the activity of this unit. It will also shed more light on what the unit is about. We believe that this unit planned to infiltrate Israel from the sea. They planned to attack our gas rigs and to launch surface to sea missiles against our navy ships. They planned to send explosive boats, possibly unmanned, and other maritime weapons to attack Israel’s assets in the sea. I do not yet have confirmation of this.

We also believe this maritime unit of Hezbollah is involved in smuggling weapons. I talked about the ground corridor being used to smuggle weapons. I also mentioned the aerial corridor from Hariri Airport. There is a maritime smuggling corridor as well. I think there is a possibility that this person was involved in weapons smuggling. I think these were the reasons he was kidnapped but I do not yet have confirmation of this.

Sarah: This week, UNIFIL claimed that Israeli troops have attacked their soldiers. What’s the truth behind the story?

Sarit: I can answer this question based on my personal experience as a major in the IDF. Using maps, the IDF distinguishes between enemies and those who are in enemy territory but are not considered adversaries. Israel and IDF forces have specific definitions, markings and orders to ensure the IDF does not target any of them, ever. Civilians, UN forces, international organizations, humanitarian organizations and others are never considered to be enemies.

Hezbollah uses UNIFIL troops as human shields. You saw how Hezbollah launches rockets close to UNIFIL positions. I have another video that shows Hezbollah launching rockets 100 meters from UNIFIL positions. UNIFIL refused to evacuate from an active war zone when we requested them to do so. They insisted on remaining in their positions. Their excuse was that they needed to provide humanitarian aid to the population. However, the population had already evacuated the area. There was almost no population remaining in most villages there. So, there was almost no one to whom they could give humanitarian aid. If they were indeed distributing humanitarian aid, why did they need 10,000 UNIFIL soldiers to do it?

War is chaotic and violent by definition. Fighting a war is not the same as sitting in an office and making plans. War involves blasts and damage. We know how dangerous it is to stay in a war zone. We asked UNIFIL to leave and they refused.

I do not know what exactly happened in each and every incident involving UNIFIL but I do know what occurred in at least one of them. In that case, we needed to evacuate injured soldiers. We had to enter UN positions slightly to be able to evacuate our soldiers. We needed to ensure Hezbollah could not continue launching projectiles against the injured soldiers and those who came to rescue them. The UN’s position was an area that Hezbollah could not see. Our soldiers were doing the job that UNIFIL should have done. Instead of supporting us, they criticized us for breaching a UN position.

We have no reason to attack UNIFIL’s troops. Every soldier in the IDF knows that UNIFIL is not the enemy. I do not understand why UNIFIL refuses to evacuate battle zones. The lives of UNIFIL soldiers were threatened by Hezbollah for years. The same organization has decided to risk the lives of its soldiers for nothing in the current situation. I do not understand why. I do not have the answers for that.

Sarah: Can there be an agreement without international forces?

Sarit: Maybe an agreement that is based on a United Nations Security Council resolution is not the best and only option. Russia and China will be involved in an agreement involving the UN and it will likely be similar to the one of 2006. Perhaps it is better to have a bilateral agreement with the US and they can give us guarantees. This could be similar in concept to the maritime agreement. This could be an option but I do not see anybody going in this direction yet. What is currently being discussed is a combination of the two options. We will have a ceasefire agreement based on 1701 and the United States will give guarantees. I do not think this is a bad idea but we need to enforce the terms of any agreement. We need to make sure that the principle of enforcement is very clear, very effective, and there are no questions around it anymore.

Sarah: Is there any way to guarantee that Hezbollah will not reincarnate itself even if the IDF is successful? Can the IDF get rid of the Radwan forces?

Sarit: No, we are not going to get rid of most of Radwan forces because we are only maneuvering next to the border. As I said, the Radwan forces have already moved further up north toward the Litani River. The question is whether we will be able to capture all the munitions that they stored near the border. I do not think our government is interested in taking responsibility for eliminating the Radwan forces. It would mean boots on the ground in Lebanon for a long time. In the past, the international community has proven it can be effective in fighting terror groups if it has the will. We have seen past examples of this. International forces were effective in fighting ISIS. However, I am not sure that the international community is willing to fight to eliminate Hezbollah in Lebanon. The likely scenario is that Hezbollah will recover and nobody will enforce the resolution. Sooner or later, I am afraid we will need to invade Lebanon for a fourth time. That is the biggest risk. The probability that it will occur is very real.

Sarah: Okay, so is there any way to contain Hezbollah without directly attacking Iran and Iranian forces in Iraq and Syria?

Sarit: I am not sure. After we eliminated Nasralla, the first question we asked was what Iran would do. Hezbollah was a complete disappointment to the Iranians. Hezbollah was their best proxy. As I mentioned, their performance has been extremely poor. That said, they are still launching between 100 to 200 rockets at us every day. There was also a Hezbollah drone that targeted our prime minister’s residency. These incidents indicate there is a direct IRGC involvement. Somebody is running the business and Hezbollah’s leadership is no longer strong enough to do it. I think the Iranians are deeply involved at the most tactical levels here. I do not have any information to support my hypothesis but that is my assessment. As long as we are not dealing with the IRGC, the smuggling of weapons will continue. With respect to smuggling, I believe that Israel will try to prevent it as much as possible but I do not know how successful we will be.

Sarah: Can the air force stop the smuggling by attacking the Shiite controlled areas of Iraq and Syria?

Sarit: We can only achieve a limited amount of success using our air force. That is the lesson we are learning from both Gaza and Lebanon. The air force cannot destroy our enemies’ underground facilities by itself. We need boots on the ground to put explosives inside the underground facilities. We have to conduct house to house warfare. We waited for too long to deal with this, and not only in Lebanon, as you said.

Sarah: Unfortunately, Israel has been kicking the can down the road as regards dealing with Hezbollah. How do you envision this war ending? Is there a possibility of establishing an independent Lebanon ruled by the Maronites or other minorities? What might a government that is not dominated by Hezbollah look like?

Sarit: I want to believe that my government is not interested in a long war because I want my daughter to go to school every day and I want my life back. I believe my government will need to make compromises but these will be in the context of what we have achieved in Lebanon. We cannot underestimate our achievements in Lebanon. Hezbollah today is not the Hezbollah that it was two months ago. The question at stake is whether Hezbollah has the ability to recover. That is the biggest question.

I believe Israel will make compromises. However, it will do so under the working assumption that it will act if Hezbollah tries to recover. There will be an open question as to how exactly to define red lines in this regard. This would determine whether Israel would need to attack again after a few weeks, a few months or a few years. We have never drawn clear red lines in the past.

The internal state of Lebanon is also a risk. There is a risk of a civil war in Lebanon and this is problematic for us. Hezbollah is weaker than it was and the voices against it are louder. However, since the Iranians decided not to abandon Hezbollah, I am not sure this is enough. As an ex-intelligence officer, I know that popular revolutions are hard to predict. This was the case with the Islamic revolution in Iran and the civil war in Syria. So, a civil war is difficult to predict but it is a risk. Of course, we still hope that Christians will finally lead Lebanon to a better future.

Sarah: I know the US election is foremost on everyone’s mind right now. What is the feeling in Israel as regards the US election?

Sarit: As an Israeli, it is difficult to assess the impact of the US election on Israel. In the final analysis, you have your own interests and problems and we have ours. The night of November 5^th was dramatic for Israelis as well as for Americans. Everyone in the Middle East was waiting for the result of the US election. We wanted to learn who the next US president would be because it is important to us. However, it was also important to us to get past November 5^th because the Iranians had promised to attack us for the third time on that day. We are still anticipating this attack from Iran.

There is a huge question as to what the policy of the current administration will be now that they no longer have the election pending. I am referring to the time period from now until January, 2025. Will the administration change its policy, or will it be more of the same? That is a question being asked in Israel and I do not have an answer to it. Obviously, from our perspective, we want to end the war in the best way possible for Israel.

Sarah: On April 13^th, I was in Israel when Iran attacked. Iran attacked Israel again on October 1^st. Israel responded in a very precise, calibrated fashion in light of warnings from the current administration and the White House. As you mentioned, Israel is bracing itself for another Iranian attack. Iran has made some really dire threats. Do you feel that Israel might launch a preemptive strike before Iran has a chance to attack again?

Sarit: It’s an option. I don’t know. We also do not know what this Iranian attack would look like.  We are receiving reports indicating that Iran’s proxies in Iraq and other places might be involved as well. I am not aware of the exact capabilities of Iran’s proxies in Iraq. I do know they have launched around 200 attacks since the war against Israel started. The attacks were mostly drone attacks and some attacks included more than one drone. Many of them were lost or intercepted along the way and did not reach Israel. So, I am not sure how much damage Iran’s other proxies can cause if they attack. I do want everybody to remember something very important. Even if there is no damage, around eight million Israelis are running to shelters every time there is an attack. That is the majority of the Israelis. Now imagine that happening in the United States. Israelis are living under the threat of having to run for shelter at any time. They are hiding from ballistic missiles that could be launched from Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria or Iran itself. We should not have to accept that.

Sarah: It is totally an unacceptable situation. Is Israel still targeting Hezbollah’s financial institutions?

Sarit: We targeted Hezbollah’s financial institutions but I do not know if we destroyed them all. If we do not, we will probably destroy more. By the way, the bank we attacked has been under American sanctions since 2016 and this was a completely legitimate strike.

Sarah: How far north do you think the IDF will go with boots on the ground in Lebanon?

Sarit: The Israeli government’s decision was to place boots on the ground only very few kilometers from the border. The IDF has already announced that it is completing its mission within days. I do not see any indications that it is going to go further than that but I do not know for sure. As I said, Tuesday was a dramatic night in Israel. I am not sure if you heard but Netanyahu fired our defense minister. So, things will change but I do not know exactly how.

Sarah: I cannot thank you enough. Sarit. First of all, for how prescient you have been. You predicted the current situation in the North year ago. You have been right all along about the level of danger presented to Israel by Hezbollah. We are also so grateful for you for remaining up there in Israel’s North. We know what you and your family are going through is not easy. I wish you all the luck in the world. I hope the IDF can keep you and your family safe from now on. I wish you a wonderful, happy, healthy and blessed New Year and an end to Hezbollah’s attacks.

Sarit: Thank you. Sarah. I do not feel I predicted anything. I feel that I stated the obvious over and over again. I wish I had been wrong.

Sarah: Yes, we all wish we were wrong a lot about a lot of things since the beginning of the Oslo Accords. As a reminder, we have our Rays of Light in the Darkness dinner coming up on November 19th.This year we will honor Ambassador Herzog and his wife, as well as the heroic Mosab Hassan Yousef, who has risked his life in order to tell the truth. We have the wonderful Rep. Elise Stefanik, Rep. Jared Moskowitz and Shabbos Kestenbaum, all amazing and brave speakers of the truth. If you would like to know more about our dinner, please go to https://emetonline.org/. Again, thank you so much, Sarit. God bless you.

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