 This is Global Connections. And the question we are asking is, how concerned should we be about Hezbollah? How long will Hezbollah constrain its attacks? And what will it do? Remember that it is directed by Iran as all these other non-state actor, terrorist groups on all sides of Israel are doing. And for this discussion, we have Rupmati Kandakar, a geopolitical strategist to join us. Welcome to the show, Rupmati. Hello, Haji, and thank you for having me on it. Thank you very much. Well, let me say that the one thing I want to sort of lay down in this context is that you have to look at all the dots and connect them. And I don't think a lot of the media does that. And they accept press release disinformation from various sources. And you really have to connect the dots. You have to use critical thinking to figure out what's going on in the Middle East. So we have Hamas in Gaza. Hamas is a non-state actor, but it controls Gaza. It is the government of Gaza because Gaza is a failed state. And it in turn, that is Hamas, is in turn controlled by Iran. It is trained, directed, and it is armed by Iran and coordinated with other non-state actors. So one of those other non-state actors is Hezbollah, which is in Lebanon, which is another failed state controlled by non-state actor terrorists. Okay, and they are not particularly concerned about human life. And they use human shields pretty much the same way Hamas does. Okay, and then there's another one, it's Yemen. Yemen, you'll have to agree, is another failed state which is controlled by the Houthis who are non-state actor terrorists. And they are controlled, surprised by Iran and armed by Iran. And so what we have is now three of them there. And we have the same process going on in Syria where the US is fighting in Syria. So this is sort of spreading out some more and Israel has to cope with the non-state actor terrorist groups who are all sworn to do two things. One is get the United States out of the Middle East, throw them out and isolate Israel and then destroy Israel. That's what it's about for Iran. And it seems to be getting worse. And Iran wants to keep the war going for as long as possible. So it is not particularly interested in a positive result from any ceasefire negotiations. And maybe that explains the positions that are taken by Hamas and the others. It wants the war of attrition. It wants to push the US out and isolate Israel. And it's doing that. And Israel's policy is to respond but the US policy is to perseverate. So the question is, the question I put to you, Muddy, is the US doing the right thing? Is Joe Biden doing the right thing in terms of dealing, in this case for this discussion, with Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon, in all of Lebanon? Jay, in our previous programs, we have discussed the role of Iran in this war. And now when you asked me this about Joe Biden, he's drifting from his policies, Jay. And when, like you said, the delay that is happening in this war is helping the other side rather than Israel. And Jay, in these three movements that you mentioned, all three are Pan-Islamist resistance movements. All three are militant outfits which have taken out a political role to keep their relevance. And all three have a single-soul mission to wipe Israel off the map that is reiterated by their master of finance, that is Iran. And these three don't have the military capability to deal with the state. So the deal in these poking tactics is Hezbollah's far more powerful than Hamas. And it was involved in rocket-firing against Israel from the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, Jay. And they kept on doing this. And recently, like... I think you should emphasize the point that Hezbollah started lobbing rockets and drones into northern Israel immediately after the October 7 atrocities. They didn't wait right away. Yes. And Israel is not drawn when the defense minister says, we will be bombing into Lebanon because they know the threat from Lebanon Israel and southern Lebanon, Jay. Hezbollah has this strategy. The modest operanda is of firing rockets. And the recent one that happened was in Kyrgyzstan, Shimonah, Rivasat al-Alam, and Aviviam. These cities in, I don't know the part of my pronunciation, but these cities in Israel. So if a foreign terrorist outfit is bombing your city, don't you have the right to self-defense? These words like genocide, apartheid, all these words come into play. I think the word that should be emphasized is the right to self-defense by the only democracy in the Middle East against a terrorist attack which is funded by these militant outfits, Jay. Just taking on a political, minuscule political role doesn't make them a political entity, Jay. They do carry out targeted militant... They do hurt civilians. They have this... What is that? Their support for Hamas, Hezbollah, Hamas is not a secret, not a secret in the media, but it's not reported that way. Yeah, well, you know, so let me go back to Joe Biden. He doesn't seem to be taking strong steps to support Israel. He did it first, but then you saw this backlash in the US, this anti-Semitic backlash on many, many, many American campuses. You saw these protests and all that. Protests that favored Hamas, it was really extraordinary that all of a sudden, after atrocities, within days after atrocities, there were these protests involving many tens of thousands of people in the United States and for that matter in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, you have, on the one hand, you have the atrocities and on the other hand, you have this propaganda war that you mentioned. So Joe Biden is swinging from one side to the other. A couple of days ago, we had Kamala Harris get up and say, well, we have to have a peace settlement and all that. So my question to you, our group body is, does in your view, does Iran want to have peace here or isn't in Iran's interest and within its mission of not having peace? Jay, the Islamic movement in 1979, the revolution, Islamic revolution, and Hisbulla's Genesis was in 1980, so 82. So this is not a coincidence, Jay. Iran has funded and given birth to Hisbulla as a proxy for them. They fight the wars that Iran cannot come directly inside. Iran has too much of a coward in international politics to come head on with Israel or US. They want Hisbulla to do their work. And when you blame in international politics, they will say, we didn't do it, Hisbulla did it, so go attack Lebanon. This is the right thing that the trajectory that they follow and media does not report this, media has taken a narrative that Israel is the oppressor rather than the oppressed. These, if you count the number of attacks, if you count the number of states which are threatening Israel every day on a daily basis, it's phenomenal, Jay, how much they have to face. And Jay, Hisbulla will discuss the Shiasumi divide. It is a very interesting point in those factions that they keep aside all this in just in order to attack Israel. And Jay, what do you call a militant outfit which has the sole aim to wipe out Israel as their manifesto from the beginning? I'll go to my air quoted famously to say that you can negotiate with somebody who is sworn to kill you. And you never get to the result, you never get a peace. And if they really wanted to have a peace, wouldn't they release the hostages? Wouldn't that be instead they're killing the hostages and the hostages are dying over 150 odd days now. So I don't think anyone can treat them as sincere in any effort to have peace. So yeah, the other thing I wanted to mention is that week, and this is a part of the discussion with on YouTube with this fellow, Amin Dean, who is a former, he's a Saudi and he worked for Amin Laden years ago. He's very experienced in the whole Middle Eastern Islamic divide you were gonna talk about. And he explains what's going on here. And it has all the indications of a perpetual war, a war in which we have attrition. And after all, Israel is surrounded by all these people who want the river to the sea and destroy Israel. And that means, of course, Hamas, the Yemenis, the Islamic Jihad and Hamas in West Bank. The Russians now are in the golden heights. Who did I miss? I mean, it's just all around them, all people who want to destroy them, isn't that nice? And they have invested 5% of their entire population, of their entire Israeli population is fighting. How long can they continue to do that? What kind of an economy can you have? And for reasons that are really not clear, well, that are clear, I guess, is that Congress isn't giving him any money and letting him wither on the vine. And so how long can Israel keep this up against a very well-funded, well-trained, well-armed group of terrorists that are in all its borders? So I feel that the war of attrition doesn't go well for Israel. And I don't know how long they can continue to do this. They haven't stiffed up a little. And they are proud and they are determined, but they're losing people and they're spending all their money and nobody is at his desk at his job. This is all citizen soldiers and they're not participating in it. Your thoughts? You're so right about this, Jay. How long can they continue is the biggest question. Cease fires, all this is dealing tactics and they have replenishments in their forces. One on one comes, they're like a pack of hyenas who are hunting and they come one on one, one after the other, one after the other. And they are refreshed and they are reinforced and they keep on attacking Israel. And Israel has to deal not only with these follies, they have to deal with international media, international pressure. And, Jay, like you said, the entire population is fighting. When do you concentrate about the economy? When do you concentrate about being a state? How long can they give up? And that's what courage is all about, isn't it? It's just about surviving and somewhere you need divine intervention, I think, which they do draw their strength from. You know, I may sound, you know, it's out of my position to talk about this, but it's always divine help that Israel can stand up to these nations. I don't think any other country could have which took so much of resistance, Jay. And for so many reasons. Can you imagine what would happen in the US if somebody attacked us like this? Remember 9-11, you know? And we, the Israelis were attacked. We didn't start this. Anyway, you know, I'm concerned about the Lebanese border and Hezbollah in the sense that they do have more sophisticated weapons than Hamas. They have more soldiers than Hamas. They're closer, I suppose, to Iran. And they have been lobbing rockets and missiles into Northern Israel, increasing distances since October 7th. And so the Israelis are saying, well, you better not do that anymore. If you continue to do that, we're gonna have to counterattack you. In the meantime, Israel's taken 80,000 people of the cities along the border there. And evacuated them to other parts of Israel, whether they're living with family, friends, or hotels, what have you. It's not like there's a place waiting to take care of them. They have to be relocated in the evacuation. And so when Israel says you better not do that anymore, how serious can Israel be? Because if Israel actually goes after them, it's gonna have a big fight on its hands. And then it'll have two fights going on. Or more. Or maybe three fights. And can it afford to have a major fight on the border of Lebanon? So I wonder when they say, you better not do that anymore, whether they're really saying, we'd rather not have a major fight with you. What are your thoughts? Yeah, Jay. Trying to avoid this. Jay, one thing about them is that they are funding. And these rockets are so... I use the word again, targeted. They have, Israel has got this diverse aims and objectives to stop this border to clean Gaza to protected citizens. For them, it is just attack Israel, attack Israel. There is no other aim for them. And like you said, they're determined. They're determined in depth and focused. Now, Hezbollah makes rockets in the name of Israel. I mean, they don't have stockpiling or they don't have any other mission. They don't have anything to protect their borders. It is just targeted towards hammering Israel. That's the only thing. Aim, sole aim for that. And Jay, a little bit of background on them that Hezbollah is a Shia militant organization. Hamas is a Sunni militant organization. And Shia-Sunni divide is huge in the Islamic world. We don't know about it as much as we just give a fleeting response to it. And Lebanon is 30% Christian, 30% Shia, and 30% Sunni. So the legitimacy and the authority that Hezbollah gets is by showing that they are fighting Israel and they try to garner support in the Shia-Sunni faction of Lebanese population. But they don't get that kind of support because the Shias, Sunnis don't support Hezbollah, but because Hezbollah is supporting Hamas, which is a Sunni organization, they get that support. So it is your enemy, my enemy, we are friends. Maybe I don't know that kind of tactics happen in these militant organizations. So they forget the Islamic divides and they go forth for militant aims about Israel. That's very, very dangerous. And Lebanon was a Christian country 30 years back, if you know. Yes, well, I mean, Israel's surrounded by failed countries. Think about it, every single country, I would accept Egypt from that, but Egypt doesn't want Hamas in its poorest because it treats Hamas as a terror group. So every one of these terror organizations is in a failed country, meaning that the failed country can't, doesn't have the resources, people, or political control to do anything. So you have the whole Middle East, really, run by Iranian terrorists, whether they be Shia or Sunni. And the common denominator is Iran, motivating them all to attack Israel. So I guess I'm worried about what position the United States should take because somehow, see if you agree with me, Lebanon is a key feature here because if the war on the Northern border, Sharia, Shimonah, if they are attacked and if people who have evacuated, 80,000 people have evacuated to the south, and they are attacked because these missiles and rockets can reach over the zone of evacuation and into central Israel, if this becomes a big war, what happens then? And what is the United States gonna do? And this is a surrey question, but what is the United Nations gonna do? How about nothing? But how does the calculus change if Hezbollah really does attack Northern Israel? Right now, they just have these sporadic attacks with missiles and rockets that they're not using the full measure of the armaments that they control. They just wanna keep Israel off balance. That's what they're doing and have this continuing threat. But if it got into a real shooting war there, how would that change the calculus? How would it change the need for American involvement? Jay, Israel's war tactics from the beginning of October 7th, terrorist attack on Israel, we saw that before anything being proved, before anything being, they continued their attack and resistance on the Hezbollah from the Lebanese front. They knew that this is the front which will keep on poking, so they knew they had to keep it on bay. And till now, they have kept them resisting them. So Israel is very clear about Lebanon to hold them back because they keep on poking. US as an ally, as we keep on talking about this, that it's the hegemon of the international system and to have a vantage point in the Middle East or to have the existence of Israel as the only democratic state in Middle East is of vital importance to the United States. And to keep it going to support it is not only a matter of military or civilian importance, it is also humanitarian because there are six countries who are trying to destroy a country out of the map. How long can you have that? And not only the country, that's an entire race which they want to make it vanish of the map of the human existence. And that cannot happen tomorrow. They will climb down on the next target. After Israel, it will be another target. And Jay, when you have this much of the Islamic resistance movements, if, and God forbid they never achieve the target of eliminating Israel, they will be a breeding ground for more terrorism. They will start planning more terrorist attacks in all the democratic states, the Sharia law, the Sunni law, this law, undermines democracy in every which state. So Israel is not only a state, it is also the beacon of democracy. And Jay, we lessen the value of democratic issues because if we don't keep Israel at the forefront because see functioning liberal state in the Middle East is a rarity, it's a single one. We don't have many Israel, we just have one Israel. So if you want to preserve this kind of outlook or thought, it has to be, the ally has to be in, the allies in fact have to be in full support and wavering support in the Congress, I think has to be overcome. It has to be a overt policy of supporting not a covert one because right now there is entire, there's an overt attack on Israel. So it needs overt responses in every which way. And a small cutting back Jay is very dangerous because Israel is being, Ukraine is just facing Russian aggression. Let me take it, if you want to compare it, just Russian aggression on one front. Israel faces these kind of attacks on six fronts, seven fronts, and with a gorilla warfare tactics which just overwhelm the traditional military apparatus. And Jay, in that, there is a growing anti-semitic sentiment all over the world where Jews all over the world are targeted. So this is the spilling over effect is more dangerous for Israel. So this is a very complicated situation Jay. And support from allies or non-allies is very, very important. But I like one thing that Israel is very determined in its task and it knows how to fight without support, with support, and just for, like you always say, this line is yours, existential crisis is gone. So it needs, it has to, it has no other choice. And any- Let's go ahead. Yeah Jay. Well, let's turn to the US for a moment. I mean, we are now, let's see, voting begins, absentee voting, you know, begins in September, some states for the November election. And we're, let's see, April, May, June, July, August, five months away from that. And maybe seven or eight months away from the election itself. And it seems that Trump has said that he would like to see Biden fail. He would like to see Biden fail in everything possible. Immigration, for example, wants to see him fail there. He wants to see him fail in Ukraine so he can blame the failure of Ukraine on him. He gonna fix Ukraine, Trump says on day one. He'll fix it by giving it to Putin. And of course, he would like, you know, this war to continue in the Middle East so that when he gets elected, he can make peace. So the likelihood, given the fact that the MAGA GOP is effectively controlling and blocking aid and a resolution of the immigration crisis on the Southern border. It's in Trump's interest to keep everything in suspense and not to allow Mike Johnson to solve any of these problems so that he, Trump can blame the Democrats and Joe Biden. So I suggest to you that we aren't gonna see an American initiative to help Israel, not in a major way anyway. Joe Biden may provide them some weapons, but nothing as we would have in the bill that he submitted or cause to be introduced. So if let's assume that nothing does happen where the United States gets his act together and supports Israel the way it was supposed to, what happens politically here in this country? I mean, A, it makes Joe Biden look weak, maybe in some ways he is. And B, it makes Trump look stronger. And that would affect the election. Would it not? Your search? Absolutely right, Jay. He plays to the drama, to the tea. And Jay, American foreign policy, irrespective of the precedence, like we say, it falls in line. And Israel has always been an ally, irrespective of Republican or Democrat. But Trump will want to take the upper hand or showcase that he is at the upper hand. And Biden's failures will be Trump's triumphs. That kind of mindset that he's got, I hope it does not move towards any dangerous zone for Israel. And he continues to keep the support for Israel going irrespective of natural domestic politics. Because this is something beyond our borders, but it will affect every Jew within American borders. And election promises, election promises on Israel, they are very muted about it, because we know that the general sentiment amongst the people is not that well educated. They do not have a very clear idea of what is the Israel-Palestine conflict. They see 200 protesters waving the Palestine flag. They think Israel is bad. Nobody goes into the nitty gritty of international politics or what is happening, really happening in Israel. They go with the mob, they go with the masses. So coming out with these kind of statements, pro or against Israel, they will always restrain themselves, these two presidential candidates. They will keep it muted, but underlying current will be towards being an ally for Israel. That's what is my thought about Israel. And at one point of time, Israel is still playing conventional military weapons. Israel is still valuing a civilian life. Israel is still targeting military targets in Lebanon, in Gaza, everything. At one point of time, they will force Israel to give a more sophisticated response to these mini rockets. I'm sure about that. I hope so because what we saw in the Hamas attack on October 7th is that if you throw a swarm of rockets and missiles and drones against Iron Dome, Iron Dome can't handle it. I don't know if Israel solved that problem. I don't know if the U.S. has provided technology to deal with the swarm problem. But we are all learning and they are learning and Iran is learning, Iran makes drones. They supply the world with weapons, including drones. So it leaves me with two questions I want to ask you. The first one is, Hezbollah is saying, of course, you always have the risk of gross propaganda here when a terrorist organization is telling you something. Is that they're the sympathetic with Hamas? And just like the Houthis, they're going to continue to attack Israel in the case of the Houthis. They're going to continue to sink ships and they actually did sink the Ruby Mar just the other day. They sank it in and cut the cable and it did terrible environmental damages. They are going to, they will stop attacking Israel if Israel agrees to a ceasefire. And of course, Israel is not going to agree to a ceasefire unless there is an agreement for a ceasefire. And of course, Iran really does control whether there is ever going to be an agreement for a ceasefire. But let's assume there is a ceasefire. Do you think that Hezbollah will stop attacking Israel? That will no longer be a threat. Israel, Hezbollah's manifesto is to eliminate Israel. How will they stop? It's the truth that Israel has accepted. And just see it instead of just looking towards only Gaza and from where the attack was coming, Israel knew that the attack is also from, the threat is real from Lebanon. And so they did not leave that front. And this kind of alertness about Hezbollah is always, always, always very necessary because there is somewhere there is always in Islamophobia that loyalty is very rare. They do stab you in the back when you're not looking. There's always a rule that you always hit from the front. An enemy, you should deal with the front. But Islam, in Islam, they do stab you in the back. That same came from there. The interesting question is, we always, we look forward and we wanna examine whether there are variables that could come in from stage right to stage left that we haven't anticipated and that would change things. And as I was asking you about the political scene, the ever-changing political scene in the US, whether that would change things. And I suppose what happens in Ukraine could also change the, what do you wanna call it? The global calculus, the global environment around these wars. But one thing I don't understand and I wanna ask you your thoughts about it, and that is why is Russia building a military force in the Golden Heights? What is Putin doing? Doesn't he have enough going on in Ukraine? Yeah, Putin has never been away from Middle East politics. We have seen his presence in Syria all throughout. He has supported, he has... There was one article I don't remember. It was a gift to Putin on his birthday, something like that and I don't, I'll send you that link if I find it. And Jay, Middle East politics is a big, big distraction from Putin's aggression every and each time. When there is aggression over here, you have the planes falling and assassinations happening. You have something spectacular happening in the Middle East. You have some other underhand dealings happening in Russia. So he uses it as his playground. And Iran has been an ally of Russia, so always. So this kind of, and Iran's outlet in the Middle East, no, in the global politics are these militant outfits. Not only just, they don't have an international standing if they don't support these small, small militant outfits. So Russia sees this, they, how do you tell it? They heard these outfits because nothing concrete comes for Russia, nor they have to indulge in tremendous amount of spending. But having these groups to their advantages is always beneficial for Putin because Putin's foreign policy regarding Middle East has always been to have a hold. That has been his, they don't want, Israel is a stronghold ally of the US, undoubtedly. So how does Putin come in? He can't, he can't come in directly. So he supports these militant outfits. It's like a schoolyard, a schoolyard fight. You know, in one corner of the schoolyard, you see all the bullies gang up on someone. You got to get over there and join the bullies. That's what he's doing. That's my opinion. And one thing that's related to that is that you have the EU and you have NATO. Now, Israel is not a member of NATO, we should work. But they are focused on Ukraine. I'm not saying they're helping Ukraine. Maybe they should help Ukraine a lot more. Ukraine is running out of soldiers and it's running out of ammunition. It's running out of morale. And that attacked the other day on whether it was intentional or by mistake by Russia against the prime minister of Greece, Anzolensky and Odessa. That was pretty threatening. So we have Ukraine is in a bad place for the lack of support by the US. My question to you is, how much can Israel count on support from the EU, countries of the EU and for that matter, the countries of NATO? Have they been helpful here? Would they be more helpful? You think if there was a fighting war, I mean a really hot war on the border with Lebanon, with the Israelis, the IDF and Hezbollah? Jay, at one point of time in international politics, I always thank it that they are not that effective organizations towards their opinion or to implement their decisions. They have decisions which are just binding, the guidelines, not binding. And they don't have military prowess to enforce it because the kind of discussions that are going on in the EU and are not worthy of the Israeli defense state. And if you see that they have a lot of pressure from the internal domestic politics, the right wing, left wing is going on over there. So they have those kinds of issues that come in the EU decisions that come in. And NATO is a good force, but we have the hegemon supporting Israel. So that is a balancing tactic in that. But as international organizations, the EU is a false short jay. And Netanyahu had told a long time back that this war from Israel will move to Europe. Now, when he said that, he had a very clear-cut idea that when these immigrants go to Europe, there are already existing terror cells in Europe which watch the politics in Middle East very closely. And at will they can have these hotspots in Europe which are vulnerable to attack. They're not going to stop. And they keep on getting stronger day by day. Tell me a European street which was the same 10 years back. We used to go on holiday. We used to love it. We used to love the European culture. We used to love the history behind it. And now it's defaced. There is a total cultural invasion. I don't mind immigrants. I don't mind people coming in and staying in for survival. But when you invade a place with its culture and you undermine it and overwhelm it with your own, you destroy the... For me, truly, personally, European-ness is destroyed at a very fast pace. 10 years from now... It also has an effect on the politics. You know, this anti-Israel politics from migrants, from Islamic migrants in Europe. It certainly has an effect on elected leaders in democracies there, don't you think? Right wing, left wing is so acute. You know, Netherlands, Denmark, these places are coming out with covert expressions of hatred. And Jane, right now, these terror cells regroup, come back, and they will be reinforced with these migrants who will move from the Middle East towards Europe. And when they have European environments, European facilities to... To honor support or, you know, to establish their own identity over there, you think they will leave? Lebanon was a Christian country 30 years back. We can't let go of that fact that it doesn't take long for them to completely take over. And immigration, migration for survival was a different cause 10, 20 years back. Today, it is just for regrouping, reinforcing, and oppressing and taking over. This taking over from migrants is going to be a big problem in 10 years from now. Writers about migration cannot write about anything else rather than what will be. Netanyahu was perfectly right when he said that the problem moves from here to Europe. He gave the destination, he gave the location. That way. Well, you have to be concerned, even if they want to be isolationists in Congress. The fact is that we could have terrorism here. You suggested that possibility before. I want to throw one last possibility at you, Umadi. That is this. We've looked at all this coordination, direction weaponizing from Iran. It's not going to stop. It's going to get worse because, you know, what did that fellow, I'm in Dean say, he said, Leading with weakness will get you war. Quote in that video on YouTube. Leading with weakness will get you war. And, you know, I think this will continue and Hamas will get stronger and more bold. And so will Iran. And so all of these terrorist organizations, they are pretty bold right now. But if you say that Iran is controlling Hezbollah, and if you see that Hezbollah is very weaponized and has sophisticated missiles and drones that has not used yet, have not deployed all of its weapons, it seems to me there's a possibility that Iran is holding them in reserve as a strategical matter. And when the time is right, whatever, you know, Hamas feels the time should be, then it will unleash Hezbollah from the North onto Israel, making, you know, the war a much bigger war and drawing other people in or not, and developing even greater threats to Israel. So my question is, do you feel that, you know, from the four corners of this conversation, I feel that Iran may be holding Hezbollah in reserve like as a military battlefield strategy to use at the right moment. Do you feel that too? Do you think so? Absolutely, absolutely right Jay. In our previous programs, we do have discussed is that the October 7th terrorist attack, they knew that it's not going to destroy Israel in one shot. It was targeted towards provocation, expecting a retaliation and then a long drawn war strategy. It was just a provocative attack on Israel. They knew that they will have a retaliation and this kind of, they are thinking beyond us, Jay. They're thinking 10 steps further. And Iran, like the point that you said, Iran is holding Hezbollah in reserve is such a valid point because right now they have not shown anything. A few rockets is not what they have. The Shaheen drones that is Iran supplies to the world, they can put the entire thing on Israel. So these strategies are still waiting to be unraveled and Israel is at a greater risk now than it was before because they are just regrouping and reinforcing their ammunition. And the target is getting stronger. The target is determined, but their enforcements are getting stronger and stronger by the day. Now, when you talk about Russian presence also, it's Afghanistan was just Russia and US in Afghanistan and the local this, but this is a far more complicated situation in Israel. Israel is alone, fighting and grappling for US support. Ally, when you have totally, totally antagonistic atmosphere surrounding it, it is encircled by this and Jake constant consistency in the attacks which are against Israel is a very hard hitting feature of this struggle. They don't stop. They don't stop in the night. They don't stop in the day. They don't stop any time. So 24 hours alertness is difficult to maintain. A country can maintain one line of a border or one front, but constantly having to defend your country 24-7 is a daunting task. And that kind of, it's very daunting. I mean, I don't know how much to tell it, but we don't want, I told you again and again, we don't want conferences of what was and what would have been. There has to be action and there has to be decisions right now, results right now. Yeah. And finally, when I get out of this, I think we're out of time, but let me offer this thought to you is that support by the U.S. and soon and right now becomes increasingly more important to Israel, to the survival of Israel with all of this encirclement you talk about. Well, thank you, Rootmati. Rootmati Kandekar, global geopolitical strategist, really appreciate this discussion. We'll follow up because this is a moving target. I hate to use that word. And there's more to come. Thank you so much, Rootmati. Now I like it. Thank you so much. Aloha.