https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-900787
Israel and Lebanon signed a US-brokered framework agreement in Washington on June 26, turning months of cautious negotiations into a formal diplomatic process. But the deal’s hardest test is only beginning: whether Lebanon can impose state authority in the south while Hezbollah remains armed, powerful, and opposed to the arrangement.
On paper, the agreement is a breakthrough. Israel and Lebanon recognize each other’s right to live in peace as neighboring sovereign states and say they intend to end the conflict and, eventually, any state of war between them. In practice, the bargain remains the one that shaped the talks from the start: Lebanon wants Israeli forces out and sovereignty restored; Israel wants proof that Hezbollah will be disarmed and kept away from the border.
Hezbollah’s rejection came quickly. The group called the framework a surrender, rejected any link between Israeli withdrawal and its own disarmament, and made clear it would not be bound by an agreement from which it was excluded. The response was predictable, but it showed the gap between the official negotiating table and Lebanon’s actual balance of power.
Clinton and Barak both wanted to surrender Yesh"a and Yerushalayim to the PLO. Arafat, y"sh, came through and scuttled the deal.
ReplyDeleteBush II and Olmert wanted to do the same thing. Abbas came through and scuttled the deal.
Nu, now Trump wants to say Israel and Lebanon have a peace accord of sorts. Let him. Hezbollah will wreck it.