Israel defies ceasefire calls in Lebanon ahead of Netanyahu UN address

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00:00Israel has rejected that ceasefire plan. Its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled

00:05to address the UN General Assembly this Friday. So with no progress on a ceasefire, where does

00:10this leave international efforts to halt the crisis? For more, I'm joined by our International

00:15Affairs Editor, Philip Turle. Hello to you, Philip. How do you explain Israel's position here?

00:20I think there are several reasons that you can evoke to explain this. First of all,

00:26I think we need to have a look at what is being asked for by the international community.

00:32They put forward this ceasefire plan, which has been proposed by the United States,

00:36the European Union and 10 other states. It was almost also backed by Zakir

00:40Starmer, the British Prime Minister. Earlier today, he's due to meet Donald Trump later today.

00:47But what it's basically calling for is a 21-day ceasefire, which would take immediate effect

00:53across the Israel-Lebanon border to allow space for diplomacy to try to work out a long-term

00:59solution and to give all parties in this standoff, Israel, Hezbollah, even Hamas, a real chance to

01:06reach diplomatic settlements. Israel had agreed to that. And behind the scenes, even the Israeli

01:13Prime Minister said that he would be willing to accept that deal. But he's now backpedaled and

01:18said no, Israel is going to carry on fighting. So why is he doing that? I think there are a

01:23couple of reasons. First one is that he knows that he's on a winning streak against Hezbollah.

01:26When you see the attacks that have happened over the last 10 days or so with the blowing up of the

01:32walkie-talkies and the pagers, which has knocked out Hezbollah's communication system, the killing

01:38of several Hezbollah leaders, the Israelis know that they are in an advantageous position. That's

01:45why they're keeping up these strikes in a bid to push Hezbollah back even further away from the

01:50border. There are reasons to believe that they may even want to push them up as far as the Litani

01:55River, which is even further north than the port city of Tyre in Lebanon, which has come under

02:01attack as well. So that's one of the reasons. The second reason is that Benjamin Netanyahu is under

02:07pressure from his far-right support in the Israeli government not to agree to a ceasefire, either a

02:13ceasefire in the Gaza Strip or a ceasefire concerning Hezbollah, because they want this

02:21confrontation to continue to basically do as much as they can to wipe out Hezbollah. He doesn't want

02:26to lose his position as prime minister, so that's why he's going in that direction. And the third

02:30point that he's said all the way down the line is that he wants the 60,000 or so Israeli citizens in

02:35northern Israel to be able to return home. They've evacuated that area as a result of the shelling

02:40by Hezbollah. That's also his main aim. So I think it's a three-point reason for the Israeli

02:46prime minister to refuse this ceasefire deal. There's a big question about a ground offensive,

02:52William. Will it take place? Will it last? And how long? What we're seeing here is the same pattern

02:58that we've seen before. We saw it back in 2006. First, full bombing raids, and then there would

03:03be a ground offensive launched afterwards. Then we saw it in the Gaza Strip after the attacks

03:08of October last year. First of all, bombing raids, and then an incursion, a ground offensive. Are we

03:14seeing the same this time around? This is much more complicated for the Israeli government,

03:18because it knows that it risks a lot if it goes wrong. If you look back at the last couple of

03:23times in 1982 and 2006, Israel did not come out of it on the winning side. Back in 2006,

03:31they sent in artillery. They had to pull them out because there were too many losses

03:34amongst Israeli soldiers. So it's a dodgy situation for the Israeli government, but it

03:39looks like that is the path that they are continuing to follow for the moment. What about

03:45on the other side of the border? What has the reaction been from Hezbollah? Do we know if they

03:48would accept a ceasefire? Hezbollah is, I think, reluctant to accept that ceasefire, because that

03:55would be seen as an admission of weakness. They are remaining defiant, saying they're going to

03:59carry on. The question is, how much damage has been done to Hezbollah? We know they've had

04:03communications knocked out. Does that mean that they are no longer able to fire missiles? Well,

04:07it doesn't really, because they've been carrying on doing that ever since these attacks started,

04:12and they're still doing it now, even going as far as trying to send a missile into Tel Aviv.

04:17So it looks like Hezbollah is still continuing to be difficult as far as Israel is concerned.

04:21What we want to know now is what is the position of Iran? Because Iran is, I think, the kingmaker

04:28in all this. It's Iran which is providing military support for Hezbollah. It's providing it with

04:35money. But Iran doesn't want to get involved in a much wider conflict in the areas. That's why

04:39it's using its proxies, be it Hezbollah, be it Hamas, be it the Houthis, to cause problems for

04:44Israel. But Iran wants to keep out of it, because it doesn't want international retaliation against

04:49it, because it wants to keep its nuclear program intact. So all of these are factors that could

04:56play into what is going to happen in the long run. I think what the international community

05:00doesn't want, and that's why we see this growing frustration in Washington about the intransigence

05:05of the Israeli leadership, is for all of this to spiral out of control, because then it would be

05:10much more difficult to handle. For the moment, it seems pretty difficult, almost impossible,

05:16to rein in the Israeli prime minister. All right. Thank you very much, Philip Turrell,

05:21our international affairs editor.

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