Rudyard Griffiths

Welcome to the Friday Focus podcast for the 17th of April, 2026.

I'm Rudyard Griffiths, chair of the Munk Debates, joined by Janice Gross-Stein, the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs.

Janice, how are you?

We've got you back in Canada.

You are no longer doing this from a London hotel room at three in the morning.

This is progress.

It is.

Yeah.

So let's focus on the first half of the show on the Lebanon ceasefire as a way of updating our audience on the causes and consequences of Israel's participation in this war.

It's something we have not focused on in much depth over the preceding few weeks.

So I think this would be a good opportunity

to catch up with you on that topic.

So let's set out first, Janice, what do we know about this ceasefire?

What are the terms and what's the purpose?

So we have what seems like though a government in Bibi Netanyahu, which is frustrated by this ceasefire, that it is, if I understand it correctly, Janice, it's impeding

what they saw as a unique opportunity to push Hezbollah back to the Latani River, and maybe you can explain the significance of that geographical boundary, and in a sense, create a safe zone, a zone of kind of military overflight, surveillance, control.

This might have, if you'd believe some of the statements of Netanyahu's cabinet ministers,

involve the forced resettlement of Lebanese people inside this buffer zone between the Israeli border and the Latani River, the destruction of homes and houses, basically a raised earth strategy.

Is that now all in jeopardy in doubt as these ceasefire talks get underway?

Yeah.