The Iran War has taken a whole load of twists and turns that many people might not have expected but one thing that bodes well is the moves for peace and cooperation between Israel and Lebanon, which have been co-ordinated by the Trump Administration of the United States of America. You don’t have to be any sort of expert in Middle East politics to know that this is a significant move forward for peace and good relations between Lebanon and Israel.
Peaceful coexistence between Lebanon and Israel will be something beneficial to the ordinary inhabitants of both countries. It will increase trade something that can only be achieved by having good relations, it will increase Israel’s security if the terrorist groups operating out of Southern Lebanon can be crushed and it will increase the sort of personal contacts between Israelis and the Lebanese that have so far been restricted. This agreement might be the start of something I have long dreamed of which is a Levantine cooperation zone.
However a lot of the chances for success of this agreement depends on the Lebanese government clearing out the Iranian backed Hezbollah terrorists and other ‘Palestinian’ groups from Lebanese territory. These groups are not going to go nicely when asked, they are going to have to be forced out with extreme violence and for political reasons this violence is going to have to be deployed by the Lebanese government. The question I have is does the Lebanese government have the balls and the political power within Lebanon to be able to do that? We’ll just have to wait and see.
Whilst there are a lot of unknowns about this agreement, this is the most comprehensive security agreement between Israel and Lebanon in decades and with the slow crippling of the Iranian Islamist regime by America and Israel, it’s one that probably has a good chance of success. Hezbollah is in one of its worst positions in years, it’s leadership has been decapitated by the Israelis and from what I can gather supporters of Hezbollah are finding themselves increasingly isolated within Lebanon. If Hezbollah can be broken and the terror networks that threaten Israel from Lebanon be closed down then we might, just might be looking at greater peace in the region. It’s early days for this agreement and it might bring peace so let us pray that this is really the case.
Link
Statement on the new agreement between Israel and Lebanon from the US State Department.