The following is a transcript of CBC correspondent Adrienne Arsenault's interview with Isaac Herzog, a prominent member of Israel's security cabinet.

Isaac Herzog (CBC Photo)

Arsenault: My first question is, many people are surprised by the quick escalation of this conflict over the past three weeks. How did it get so bad so fast?

Herzog: Because we are dealing with an enemy that has no limitations and no boundaries. When we grew up, warfare was a battalion versus a battalion, a brigade versus a brigade, with certain minimum rules of law. Here we are dealing with a terrorist organization which is scattered with small units all over the place, which has amassed an incredible amount of armaments and equipment basically performing as a modern army but with no red lines, no limitations. So that is how it escalated, and it escalated after they had been preparing for it for a long time.

Arsenault: So you talk Hezbollah building up for a period…

Herzog: Absolutely.

Arsenault: …of six years. To what degree do you think that past Israeli governments are to blame for letting this happen and not doing anything about it?

Herzog: It is a question that is raised in Israeli politics. But again you know in diplomacy and in leadership there are questions that you need to deal with. Sometimes there are emergency issues, and sometimes there are issues that you think you can postpone. For example, we were faced with a major conflict on the Palestinians, the intefadeh. For example, we were faced with a pullout from Gaza. In addition to that, the northern part of Israel was booming economically …, touristically and otherwise . and so there was no key formative event that would lead to this escalation. and we warned and threatened … the international community that nobody really cared and bothered. Now we have seen this escalation, because the Hezbollah in recent months tried this time and again crossed another red line, firing at us, shooting, trying to kidnap again. And we've retaliated on the border itself. This time we want to make it clear it's impossible. We cannot continue whereby we station ourselves back at the border, we redeploy according to international rules and consensus, and we are hit again by this villain enemy.

Arsenault: You were once very strongly aligned with the peace camp, so now when you look at the pictures out of Lebanon when you listen to the numbers of civilian casualties, hear the criticism that some believe that Israel is using a disproportionate level of force, what goes through your heart? How fair is that criticism?

Herzog: First of all, it is a major dilemma. I see myself as a staunch member of the peace camp and want you to know that this government is a peaceful government. It is a government that has said from the onset that we will aim to conclude and finalize the conflict with the Palestinians by the way of peace. And we are willing to go as far as somebody can imagine for peace. But at the end we owe a duty to our people to defend them. At the end, we won't permit this pattern of type of behaviour whereby extreme elements in the region will use so fundamentalist lunacy weapons in order to derail the region to war. There are two options here: Either you go with a moderate coalition that wants to conclude peace by way of negotiations, and in this I include Egypt, Jordan, Abu Mazen, Mahmoud Abbas, the Turkish government, Morocco, north Africa etc., or you cave into the extremists, those who want to conquer the area. To Iran, to Hezbollah, to the axis of evil that goes through Damascus. This is the problem and that is the major conflict in the region that we are faced with today. On a personal level, I can tell you, that of course my heart is torn. My stomach beats hard when I see the terrible pictures. I understand it fully, but I can tell you that legally speaking we have the full right to act including in civilian areas after warning the civilians, because under international law when an outside force uses the property or land of another country to attack another state, the attacked state has the full right to go in, including to the civilian areas.

Arsenault: You talked about warning the civilians to leave. In some cases as your intelligence would tell you people are either too scared to leave, the roads have been bombed by Israel, where they don't have the means to get out. So at some point, what do you expect them to do other than cower in their basements?

Herzog: This is a very valid question. However, we have been warning day after day after day. We have told the Lebanese government , they can open, we have opened a humanitarian corridor, we even opened our border to fly in wounded civilians from southern Lebanon, although the Hezbollah tried to prevent it. We are doing our best, really our best, we've instructed the military to be as cautious and focused as possible. And if they have the slightest hesitation, if they are civilians there, then not to carry on the operation. However, there are tragedies. In these type of circumstances as was seen in other theatres of war, such as Afghanistan, or Iraq, or even in Yugoslavia. you see that there are tragedies of this nature. We hate it, we don't want it, we'd love this war not to have occurred or being forced on us. But this is the situation. A vicious force has been trying to lead this region to a bloodbath and we are changing the pattern of behaviour so he won't be able to do it again.

Arsenault: We keep hearing two words from Israeli officials about certain elements of this offensive. Mistake and regret. About the bombing of civilian convoys, bombing of the UN compound, Qana. How do you think those Israeli explanations are playing out?

Herzog: First of all, we are frank and we are honest and we don't like [that] we have carried out over 5,000 sorties into Lebanon. And we are carrying out massive operations because the imminent threat what comes out of Hezbollah is huge; it covers most of Israel, including the most populated areas in Israel and the centre of the country with long-range missiles . I don't know of any terrorist organization that owns scuds-style missiles. Long-range missiles. Nor do I know of any such advanced missiles from Iran and Syria that anybody has got, except Hezbollah. So that is why we are carrying out these operations and there are tragic events. The convoys, for example, they have been carrying convoys of weapons and ammunition from Syria, day in and day out. We have to make a stop from that. That is why there are some mistakes and we admitted them. And that is what happens in the modern situation of warfare where an ordinary country confronts a terrorist organization operating from within civilian villages. And I want you to know that even under the international conventions, operating from within civilian villages or civilian atmosphere is totally prohibited. And the Hezbollah is using these civilians as human shields.

Arsenault: At some point, though, is admitting a mistake enough?

Herzog: Not always enough, but that is what states do. At least first of all you say that we have made a mistake, and we changed the course of operations. Yesterday, for example, our military exposed to all of you the exact intelligence sources showing from where these launches operated. These launchers operated from Qana itself. By the way, hundreds of missiles , hundreds of missiles were shot at Israel the last few days, including Kiryat Shmona, and Afula … time and again from Qana.

Arsenault: Let's talk about those missiles for a moment. In three weeks now, Israel has not really achieved its stated goals. The soldiers have not been released. Hezbollah continues to rain down the rockets at an unprecedented rate and while world criticism and pressure is building. Now many in the Arab world and now some in Israel are saying that Israel has lost this war. How do you respond to that…?

Herzog: That is absolutely wrong, big time. It is one of those spins that Nasrallah is trying to play. Israel has, first of all, diminished the capabilities of Hezbollah in a major way. We've said from the beginning that he has 12,000 launchers and 12,000 launchers hidden in homes, and all sorts of bunkers, and tunnels and communication rooms. It is difficult to detect people [who] sleep with those launchers at home. I don't know, I don't think your family or my family would ever sleep with a missile in the living room, but that's what's happening in south Lebanon, it's part and parcel of the whole thing and that is the situation, therefore we have diminished his capabilities in a major way, his command and control capability, his major units, his strategic units, his strategic missiles, but he has still capabilities, so he is shooting sporadically all over the north and wherever he is shooting we are trying to detect and destroy.

Arsenault: On the surface though, yesterday was a record-breaking day for rockets being fired into Israel and yet you talk about the diminished capabilities. It doesn't seem to wash with some people.

Herzog: That's not true. We are dealing with a massive range of launchers that are scattered throughout the northern part or the southern part of Lebanon aiming at northern part of Israel. Some of these launchers have hit from the centre of Lebanon towards the northern part of Israel. Now we are situated in Haifa … thank God there will be no launching on Haifa anymore. That shows a certain diminishing of capability. We've hit on most of the launching capability that has hit the centre of the Galilee.

Arsenault: What went wrong in Qana?

Herzog: In Qana we are looking and searching. Because according to our information, the only single bomb that hit at one o'clock in the morning was half a kilometre from that building. We do not know if there was any ammunition in that building or any other occurrence. And we are reviewing it and we are doing an indepth research, and we will expose all of the information that is feasible to international media.

Arsenault: How much longer does Israel need, in your view, to win this war?

Herzog: Israel needs… I don't want to define it in days, Israel needs ample time to make sure that the Hezbollah cannot repeat its capabilities on central Israel or northern Israel. Now this can be done in a variety of ways. One by destroying Nasrallah himself and his peers, there are five of them who are leading this organization, and have led terror operations all over the world. Secondly, by hurting his command and control and ground forces, and thirdly by creating enough of a balance and a strong international force in Lebanon that will deter him from carrying on such operations in the future. With either of those alternatives, I am sure that we will exit soon, from this conflict.

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