One of those victories Israel has scored against Iran’s allies was the capture of Imad Fadel Amhaz, a key figure in Hizballah’s navy, in a dramatic raid on November 1. Under the cover on night, IDF commandos landed ashore, grabbed Amhaz in his cabin, and took him over 100 miles south along the coast to Israeli territory. Emanuele Ottolenghi and Joe Truzman argue that Amhaz played a key role in importing Iranian weapons into Lebanon. His capture was part of a larger effort to prevent Iran from resupplying the stocks of weapons that the IDF has been systematically destroying—an effort that began when Israel prevented Iranian cargo planes from landing in Beirut:

The evidence that has emerged is quite convincing that Iran is exploiting maritime routes to conceal weapons shipments to Hizballah, and the [Syrian] port of Latakia has become a critical part of this strategy. It should not come as a surprise. Hizballah has also been using Latakia as a logistics hub for fenethylline [the drug also known as Captagon] shipments, and what moves illegal drugs can also move weapons.

Israel’s supply-chain disruption is not going to deprive Hizballah of access to weapons completely. Hizballah has also pursued the capabilities to manufacture advanced weapons on a large scale in Lebanon, with some measure of success. Regardless, the group remains heavily dependent on Iranian resupply, and Israel’s interdictions of air and land supply routes to Lebanon confirm this. What intelligence Israel may be able to extract from Mr. Amhaz remains to be seen. But the key to starving Hizballah’s arsenal must include shutting down its sea lanes.

While President Trump has begun his term with a flurry of executive orders, their implementation is another matter. David Wurmser surveys the bureaucratic hurdles facing new presidents, and sets forth what he thinks should be the most important concerns for the White House regarding the Middle East:

The cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas may be necessary in order to retrieve whatever live hostages Israel is able to repatriate. Retrieving those hostages has been an Israeli war aim from day one.

But it is a vital American interest . . . to allow Israel to restart the war in Gaza and complete the destruction of Hamas, and also to allow Israel to enforce unilaterally UN Security Council Resolutions 1701 and 1559, which are embedded in the Lebanon cease-fire. If Hamas emerges with a story of victory in any form, not only will Israel face another October 7 soon, and not only will anti-Semitism explode exponentially globally, but cities and towns all over the West will suffer from a newly energized and encouraged global jihadist effort.

After the last hostage Israel can hope to still retrieve has been liberated, Israel will have to finish the war in a way that results in an unambiguous, incontrovertible, complete victory.