It\u2019s a rare moment, but Lebanon is coming to directly speak with Israel. Lebanon\u2019s government has been more assertive toward Hezbollah and wants to rein it in. The fact it still can\u2019t shouldn\u2019t be reason to ignore Beirut\u2019s outreach.\n<\/p>\n
Thanks to the IDF\u2019s work during the 2024 beeper-led offensive, Lebanon has been able to wrest back some power from Hezbollah. Regardless of how this war ends, any acceptable version for us in Israel has the government of Beirut being the major power broker in Lebanon.\n<\/p>\n
We don\u2019t need Lebanese to like Israel right now, just to hate Hezbollah. In other words, shoring up Beirut\u2019s political power is just as important as crippling Hezbollah\u2019s military power.\n<\/p>\n
That requires Israel to act accordingly. Lebanon\u2019s government does not need sweeping concessions or unrealistic guarantees. It needs tangible proof that engagement with Israel produces results. That could take the form of limited, localized ceasefire zones, temporary quiet understandings that reduce immediate pressure without public fanfare, or narrowly defined safe areas that allow the Lebanese state to assert control where Hezbollah has dominated. It could also include carefully calibrated public messaging that reinforces Beirut\u2019s authority as the legitimate address for negotiations.\n<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t necessarily have to be one of these ideas. The point is that none of these steps require Israel to compromise its core security goals, but they do give Lebanon something it currently lacks: evidence that diplomacy delivers.\n<\/p>\n
This is not an endorsement of a 1982 strategy, nor to say we shouldn\u2019t continue fighting right now. But that government needs something to bring back to Lebanon.\n<\/p>\n
If Lebanon is willing to engage Israel directly, even in limited negotiations, that sets a precedent far beyond Beirut. It reinforces the idea that Israel is not a party to be bypassed, but one that must be dealt with. Countries like Pakistan won\u2019t be able to bypass Israel by rerouting negotiations through Washington. Over time, that matters for every future negotiation in the region, including those involving countries that still avoid formal ties. If you want something from Israel, then talk to Israel to make it happen.\n<\/p>\n
Israel has already degraded Hezbollah on the battlefield. The question now is whether it is willing to use that leverage wisely. If Beirut is given nothing, it will deliver nothing. And Hezbollah will be the only actor left claiming it can.\n\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tGedalyah Reback is an experienced writer on technology, startups, the Middle East and Islam. He also focuses on issues of personal status in Judaism, namely conversion.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a rare moment, but Lebanon is coming to directly speak with Israel. Lebanon\u2019s government has been more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[21614,100,34,1421,48,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-66925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lebanon","8":"tag-ceasefires","9":"tag-hezbollah","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-israel-at-war","12":"tag-israel-iran-conflict","13":"tag-lebanon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116403547939563804","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}