Defeating Iran is the main goal of the current Middle East war, but Lebanon may offer the best opportunity for a breakthrough toward peace \u2014 if only President Trump would pay attention.<\/p>\n
The opportunity for progress between Beirut and Jerusalem is real. Both countries \u2014 technically at war since 1949 \u2014 have no territorial claims against each other. Both are led by governments firmly in the pro-U.S. camp, with militaries that are close partners with the U.S. armed forces. And both boast large, influential communities of supporters inside the United States that can play a helpful role in promoting peace.<\/p>\n
The key obstacle to peace is Hezbollah, the terrorist group guided, funded and armed by Iran that took a drubbing in the 2024 war against Israel. For the first time, both Lebanon and Israel say they are committed to the principle of fully disarming this radical militia. Until the outbreak of the current war, the two governments may have disagreed on the pace of disarmament, but they were working together<\/a> under U.S. auspices to share information on the location of Hezbollah weapons to be confiscated.<\/p>\n Progress on disarming Hezbollah was slow but even that was enough to give the Lebanese people the freedom to talk about the long-taboo topic of peace with Israel. Talk shows on Lebanon\u2019s freewheeling media<\/a> regularly discussed the costs and benefits of peace. Despite strict laws<\/a> banning even innocent communication between Lebanese and Israelis, some candidates in upcoming parliamentary elections began running on brash \u201cpro-peace\u201d platforms<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the face of these hopeful signs, the Trump administration has been oddly aloof. Lebanon\u2019s president, Joseph Aoun, a former army commander who looks straight out of central casting, came to office a year ago promising to defang Hezbollah and impose a monopoly<\/a> on the use of force within the country. But so far, Trump\u2019s response has been to have absolutely no direct contact with Aoun \u2014 not a meeting, not a phone call, not a letter. Contrast this with the administration\u2019s wooing of Syria\u2019s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former jihadi terrorist whom Trump met with twice, including last November in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s subordinates apparently got the message that Lebanon is not worth their time either. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has had just one meeting<\/a> with Aoun, in September on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. And there is no evidence that either special envoy Steve Witkoff or presidential problem solver Jared Kushner has met with Aoun since he became president.<\/p>\n Instead, the \u201cLebanon file,\u201d as it is called, has been shuffled from one lower-ranking official to another. Currently, it is in the hands of Michel Issa, the highly regarded U.S. ambassador in Beirut whose status as a \u201cfriend of the president<\/a>\u201d can\u2019t overcome the geographic reality that he is almost 6,000 miles from Washington. The result of this apparent indifference has been not just a lost opportunity for U.S. interests but also a political bonanza for Hezbollah, sapping enthusiasm from the drive for disarmament and leaving pro-peace Lebanese out in the cold.<\/p>\n Now, Washington has a second chance to do the right thing. Out of allegiance to Iran\u2019s slain supreme leader, Hezbollah launched rockets against northern Israel, thereby dragging a war-weary Lebanon into the fight. This reckless act was swiftly condemned<\/a> by the Lebanese government, which ordered its army to take immediate action to prevent any further military activity by Hezbollah. At the same time, the rocket attacks triggered massive Israeli retaliation against Hezbollah strongholds in the Bekaa Valley, Beirut suburbs and southern Lebanon in advance of a ground operation to clear border areas of potential infiltrators and weapons depots.<\/p>\n