What c- what compelled you to write it, and what most concerned you about the documentary's promotional material when you saw it?

Well, to be honest, uh, to expose, uh, my mission, my specific mission, uh, with the IDF is not a part of my DNA as a former intelligence officer.

It's not something that we usually do.

Even though I'm a speaker and I am being interviewed frequently, I never spoke about, uh, my exact mission in the army.

But, uh, after I saw the promotional to the video, to the film, um, I understood that, uh, I have to speak up.

I have to speak up because, uh, the promotional dealt exactly with what I, uh, used to do in the army.

The issue of collateral damage and the collateral damage assessment that is, uh, accompanied with the planning to... of every target that is base- that is based on intelligence in the IDF.

Is that correct?

המקום הזה, איך התחילים היו, איך זה נמצא? תכף נדע, בואו נדע קצת על הגיאוגרפיה שלהם, ועל התחילות ועל התחילות של ה-IDF

בצהרות האלה.

לדעת אמנות, ה-IDF לא הייתה, אלה לא נמצאים בצד היאלוה, גם אם אין בצד היאלוה קצת בצד היאלוה.

‫הארצות האלה נמצאות קצת מבחינת ‫הם נמצאים בערך 10 קילומטרים ‫מבחינת הישראל, ‫שזה טוב, ‫כי אנחנו לא עושים כל מיני ריסקים ‫שלא צריכים לתת ‫בארצות נמצאות לבחינת.

‫אז עדיאס לא נמצא ‫כי אין להם כתוביות פיזית ‫בארצות האלה.

‫זה טוב מבחינת הישראל, ‫אבל ארמי הלבנים ‫מפרסם לתלמיד את זה ‫ואמצא ש... פיילוט זונות יהיו בתחילות שה-IDF נמצא.

אני חושבת שבמשל זה לא נמצא באמת, כי האווירה היא לקרוא סציאקציה, כמו אני אמרת, ביועדת המחקר, ולבנית המחקרות הלבנית נמצאה ועושה משהו נגד חיזבאללה.

Is there a sense, first of all, of how entrenched or what kind of presence of Hezbollah is in these areas, and also the criteria for judging this?

So first of all, uh, Sarit, just broad strokes, how can a treaty between Israel and Lebanon stop Hezbollah from firing?

It can't.

It just can't.

Eh, I wouldn't-- I don't know if I can call it a treaty, but it was a joint statement, uh, with the mediation of United States.

It was the fruit of, uh, negotiations that were handled in the past two, uh, month, uh, to try to find what's in common for the Israeli government and the Lebanese government.

Eh, yes, the statement truly demonstrated what's in common, and it was, uh, it's in the positive direction to see that they-- we both spoke about the, the need for, uh, the Lebanese government to be independent, not foreign involvement, to disarm Hezbollah completely, and to make sure that all decisions are being made by the Lebanese government, meaning not by Hezbollah, eh, et cetera.

Um, the agreement to disarmament and the agreement to have a ceasefire in south Lebanon while Hezbollah should not be there completely.

So how can Israel, just knowing what has been happening, what happened when UNIFIL was meant to be monitoring the situation, how can Israel do this again?

How should the Israeli army combat Hezbollah when it keeps evolving like this? What's the answer?

So there is what we are doing, and there is what we should do, and it's not necessarily the same.

[laughs] I think we are doing part of what we should do, probably from because of restraints by international community, but again, I'm not sure.

I'm saying probably.

In the past month, since the ceasefire was declared, there is a ceasefire in Beirut and there is a ceasefire in Tel Aviv, except one Israeli attacking in Beirut, but there is no ceasefire.

There is fighting, uh, all the time between IDF and Hezbollah in South Lebanon and Northern Israel, and we are all affected by that.

I live in Northern Israel, nine kilometers from the border.

You know, we had this very extended debate in Gaza, and it turned out that the numbers, the casualty numbers, were broadly correct coming out of, of Gaza and that the number of combatants were, yeah, not as high.

Mm-hmm

...

when Hezbollah opened war against us and actually opened another front for Israel, which was clearly not interested in opening another front.

And then, then there was, uh, an agreement, the same agreement as we used to have twenty years ago that promised us that the Lebanese government will disarm Hezbollah, at least in South Lebanon.

Uh, and so since there were vio- constant violations, like daily violations of Hezbollah during the period between the two campaigns, uh, there was an Israeli dilemma of what to do in order to stop the rehabilitation of the military force of Hezbollah, which exceeded the IDF efforts to prevent it, since we did attack in Lebanon, uh, between the two campaigns, but only about twice a day on average.

And then, uh, Hezbollah again attacked us over here in the north.

So we are constantly bombed.

Sarit, please go ahead.

How do you see the, the parallel in terms of Hezbollah's disarmament, um, Israel continues to have to hit some of the violators of the ceasefire, quote, "ceasefire." Is the Lebanese government really asserting itself? Are the confiscation of weapons proceeding now?

I think we are very...

We are getting very close, uh, within two months to a point of, I don't want to say conflict because Israel will intertape- in- because people will interpret that as war.

But we will get to a point that Israel would want to continue the current policy of attacking any violation that is not being dealt, uh, or could not be dealt.

And the Lebanese Army will demand us, uh, to stop those attacks.

Hezbollah is i- is in a recovery process.

Uh, it already started.

What do you see is the current situation on the other border, on Syria? Do we see Turkey continuing to play a dominant role, trying to enhance its role? Do you see the government, uh, under Sarral exercising control? And, uh, and what happens now to the minorities?

Can you confirm any of that? Good evening to you.

Good evening.

I can confirm small part of that.

I'll put it this way.

There was an agreement between Fatah, which are subordinate to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority, to give up their weapons to, uh, Lebanese authorities.

And this process started now.

Uh, I don't think they will give everything, but we'll wait and see.

To, to, to what degree do you see the e- efforts to keep Syria's minorities who feel very much threatened still, uh, like the Druze, the Kurds, the Alawites, especially after the massacres, um, to join under the Syrian army, something I think the US envoy has been pushing, uh, and they resist? Do you see the, the chance of creating a confederation as still a viable option? Do you see the, the army of Syria being able to exercise broader control?

Yeah, I've got it.

Uh, uh, we just have alerts here in all over the center of Israel.

This is more than 200 communities that, uh, had to run for bomb shelters, uh, millions of Israelis.

It's the center of Israel, the most crowdy areas of Israel, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, et cetera.

Um, the dogs...

By the way, the dogs went crazy when we started the conversation and, uh, this is usually happens when, when things are happening.

Um, my husband went to calm them down and at the same time there are, uh, IDF attacks in Lebanon, so yeah, it's never-

A warning.

The Port of Beirut, is it under observation? Are the, are the Israelis confident they know what's coming in and out of the port?

I don't know.

Eh, we made an analysis that is based on a few components.

First is, again, the, the people, the, the commanders of Hezbollah, the people that are, eh, those who cooperate with Hezbollah in those places, whether it's Hariri Airport or the seaport, names that we are familiar with, uh, for many years, it's not something new, and they are still in their position, and they're supposed to be those who are monitoring those exits and entrances, but actually, they are collaborating with Hezbollah.

And we also made our own analysis of just the, um, past experience of Iran and its connections to the, to the region, to what it did in the past in those routes, like through Egypt and through the Suez Canal and through Sudan, and what's happening in Libya.

And you can...

When you connect all those dots, like with on the ground, the connections that Hezbollah has with, eh, those who are responsible among the, the Lebanese authorities, eh, to monitor smuggling, and at the same time when you analyze previous experience of, eh, different kind of routes that the Iranians' do, used in the past, you, you can very easily understand where this is going today.

Uh, do you see any sense of, of their ex- uh, expanding their sphere of influence there?