For more than forty years, Israel has waited for everyone to fulfill their promises to end the threat from Hezbollah and Iran in Lebanon. The US has failed to do so. The UN has failed to do so. Lebanon and its main European ally France has failed to do so. Even Hezbollah has failed to do so, refusing to comply with the cease-fire brokered by the Biden Regency in November 2024.
The Israelis’ patience has run out. When Hezbollah began launching missiles in support of and coordination with Iran, the IDF called up reserves for a major ground operation, which launched several days ago. Today, Defence Minister Israel Katz announced that the IDF planned to occupy southern Lebanon to the Litani River to put a permanent end to the threats posed from that territory:
Israel will occupy southern Lebanon up to the Litani River to create a “defensive buffer,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday, spelling out for the first time Israel’s intent to seize territory amounting to nearly a tenth of Lebanon.
At a meeting with the military chief of staff, Katz said Israeli forces would “control the remaining bridges and the security zone up to the Litani,” a river that meets the Mediterranean about 30 km (20 miles) north of Israel’s border. …
Israel has destroyed five bridges over the river since March 13 and accelerated the demolition of homes in Lebanese villages near the border, part of what it says is a campaign against Hezbollah rather than civilians. Under international law, attacks on civilian infrastructure, including homes and bridges, are generally prohibited.
Katz has previously warned Lebanon’s government it would lose territory if it failed to disarm Hezbollah, the terrorist group backed by Tehran that drew Lebanon into the US-Israeli war on Iran when it fired into Israel on March 2.
The Netanyahu government has yet to comment on this, and neither has the IDF. However, given the buildup on the border and multiple warnings to the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah, it hardly comes as a surprise. The Israelis have warned the UN, US, France, and especially Lebanon about the consequences of failure to abide by previous agreements to secure the sub-Litani and Bekaa Valley regions in southern Lebanon, commitments that go back decades and resulted in futile deployments of UN peacekeepers (UNIFIL), UN resolutions, cease-fires, and the like.
France has taken Katz’ statement seriously enough to urge Israel to reverse itself. France’s foreign minister warned of the “humanitarian consequences” that an invasion and occupation would create:
Israel should “refrain” from sending in troops to take control of a zone in south Lebanon, France’s foreign minister tells AFP, saying such a move would have “major humanitarian consequences.”
“We urge the Israeli authorities to refrain from such ground operations, which would have major humanitarian consequences and would exacerbate the country’s already dire situation,” Jean-Noel Barrot says.
That’s an interesting argument. France has been curiously sanguine about the “humanitarian consequences” of Hezbollah’s occupation of the same territory. France hasn’t lifted a finger to expel Iran’s terror proxy, not even after years of missile fire from the sub-Litani region aimed at Israeli civilians. The lack of action from Paris about those “humanitarian consequences” has been seen in the refusal to enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which authorized UNIFIL to monitor and enforce the 2006 agreement which ended the previous Israeli occupation of Lebanon by promising to keep Hezbollah out. Instead, UNIFIL acted as a protective screen while Hezbollah built the sub-Litani into a terrorist base in a similar fashion as Hamas did in Gaza at the same time.
The government in Beirut is taking this new threat seriously, too. Earlier today, Lebanon expelled the Iranian ambassador and recalled its own ambassador from Tehran, escalating a diplomatic rupture that began with expulsions of military attachés earlier in the war:
Lebanon has withdrawn accreditation from the Iranian ambassador and declared him persona non grata, demanding his departure from Lebanon by Sunday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday.
The ministry also summoned the Lebanese ambassador to Iran for consultations, citing what it described as Tehran’s violation of diplomatic norms and established practices between the two countries.
The decision comes as the Israeli army continues to attack Lebanon with air strikes and pushes forward with a ground offensive in southern Lebanon since a cross-border attack by Hezbollah on March 2, in response to the US-Israel killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The hope in Beirut is that the end of diplomatic relations with Iran will encourage direct talks with Israel. Hezbollah, of course, objected:
Lt.-Col. (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, the founder and president of the Alma Research and Education Center, who previously complained to The Jerusalem Post about Lebanon’s inaction against Hezbollah, said the latest move could lay the foundation for trust needed with Jerusalem for direct talks.
“This is very important because the Iranian embassy is traditionally known as a branch of the IRGC. The IRGC operated from within this embassy for many years to activate Hezbollah in Lebanon. And I’m very happy that Lebanon is doing that,” Zehavi told The Post.
“It is definitely a step in the right direction. And with more physical step measures like this one, it will be very helpful to build the trust between Israel and Lebanon to talk about negotiations and also to build a new future while Israel is still fighting Hezbollah and to disarm it, doing what the Lebanese government refrained from doing for many years.” …
Hezbollah condemned Lebanon’s decision, saying that they consider the decision as one that does not serve “national unity” but instead opens the door for “internal divisions.”
Welcome to the season of FAFO, everyone! After October 7, Israel finally learned that this war could no longer be managed in the hope that Iran and its proxies would tire out, or that Lebanon would ever comply with agreements to end fighting. Donald Trump learned the same lesson from it, and now the entire region has discovered that the FO phase is a necessity to put an end to all of the terrorist FA’ing from the regime in Tehran. Perhaps Lebanon’s government will internalize this lesson enough to start handing out some FO to Hezbollah north of the Litani as well.
Speaking of FA’ing, the latest episode of The Ed Morrissey Show podcast is now up! Today’s show features:
- What are we to make of Bari Weiss’ decision to shut down CBS News’ radio service? Andrew Malcolm and I put it in perspective.
- We also discuss Donald Trump’s ultimatum for Iran and its delay, as well as the constant doomspeak coming from the Protection Racket Media.
- Has Donald Trump created the first three-week quagmire in military history, or has the US media industry just decided to root for the other side?
The Ed Morrissey Show is now a fully downloadable and streamable show at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, the TEMS Podcast YouTube channel, and on Rumble and our own in-house portal at the #TEMS page!
Editor’s Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.
Help us report the truth about the Trump administration’s decisive actions to keep Americans safe and bring peace to the world. Join Hot Air VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership!
