"Israel and Hezbollah are at the closest point to war since October 7th, after an amazing intelligence and operational coup in Lebanon targeting thousands of Hezbollah terrorists in simultaneous pager blasts."

"Israel and Hezbollah are at the closest point to war since October 7th, after an amazing intelligence and operational coup in Lebanon targeting thousands of Hezbollah terrorists in simultaneous pager blasts."

"We have Channel 12 in Tel Aviv."

"I'm Jonathan Friedland of The Guardian in London."

"I'm in England."

"These blasts occur mainly in the Dakhia, which is the suburb of Beirut, the stronghold of Hezbollah."

"These explosions occur, also reportedly injuring hundreds. And one of the injured is also the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon."

"It's one of those moments where the disconnect, the gap between how Israel sees what it does and countries now around the world view it is wide, because I think in Israel, there was a sense that, wow, this is incredible, aren't we great for having this off. And we've only got the bad guys. And immediately, the interest around the world has been focused on the, as it were, dread phrase, collateral damage. And there will be some who will say, well, that's always how it's going to be. That's how people around the world are going to look at Israel, the most unsympathetic gloss possible. I would say there's a difference. Had this happened a year ago, I suspect there would have been more of the Israeli reaction. To it around the world, that people would have been concentrating on the technical prowess, but also would have thought, okay, Hezbollah is an enemy of Israel. It's not Palestinian. It's not campaigning to free occupied territory in the way that Palestinian groups would say they're in that business. You know, I know there's this Sheba Farms thing in southern Lebanon, but that's not, they can't claim to be acting directly for, you know, an occupied people. I think there would have been some more sympathy for Israel. Instead, I suspect that the last year has drained a lot of the goodwill. Because, you know, if you get outside the United States and outside Germany, which has obviously historic reasons for this, most countries start from an assumption after the last year of ill will, and they just assume the worst motives. And so there has not been the whooping and cheering and round of applause that I think some people have had in the last year or so."

"The world has been focused on the, as it were, dread phrase, collateral damage. And there will be some who will say, well, that's always how it's going to be. That's how people around the world are going to look at Israel, the most unsympathetic gloss possible. I would say there's a difference. Had this happened a year ago, I suspect there would have been more of the Israeli reaction. To it around the world, that people would have been concentrating on the technical prowess, but also would have thought, okay, Hezbollah is an enemy of Israel. It's not Palestinian. It's not campaigning to free occupied territory in the way that Palestinian groups would say they're in that business. You know, I know there's this Sheba Farms thing in southern Lebanon, but that's not, they can't claim to be acting directly for, you know, an occupied people. I think there would have been some more sympathy for Israel. Instead, I suspect that the last year has drained a lot of the goodwill. Because, you know, if you get outside the United States and outside Germany, which has obviously historic reasons for this, most countries start from an assumption after the last year of ill will, and they just assume the worst motives."

"And there will be some who will say, well, that's always how it's going to be. That's how people around the world are going to look at Israel, the most unsympathetic gloss possible. I would say there's a difference. Had this happened a year ago, I suspect there would have been more of the Israeli reaction. To it around the world, that people would have been concentrating on the technical prowess, but also would have thought, okay, Hezbollah is an enemy of Israel. It's not Palestinian. It's not campaigning to free occupied territory in the way that Palestinian groups would say they're in that business. You know, I know there's this Sheba Farms thing in southern Lebanon, but that's not, they can't claim to be acting directly for, you know, an occupied people. I think there would have been some more sympathy for Israel. Instead, I suspect that the last year has drained a lot of the goodwill. Because, you know, if you get outside the United States and outside Germany, which has obviously historic reasons for this, most countries start from an assumption after the last year of ill will, and they just assume the worst motives."